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Insights

Pulling together opinion, analysis, interviews and features on the profession along with a focus on the key issues affecting accountancy and the world of business.

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Insights Special

Equity, diversity and inclusion

An in-depth exploration of diversity and inclusion in accountancy, considering ethnicity, social mobility, gender equity, sexual orientation, disability and intergenerational fairness.
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Diversity heart

Latest news

How to manage wellbeing as we return to work
  • Article
  • 04 Aug 2021
The pandemic has exaggerated wellbeing issues and created new ones. But there are measures you can take to manage them effectively.
Accountant engineers Queen’s Award for International Trade
  • Article
  • 04 Aug 2021
Chartered accountant Katie Travis didn't know assisting her husband’s family business would culminate in a director role with the engineering company and a prestigious business award.
COVID: financial risk to taxpayers ‘will run for 20 years’
  • Article
  • 04 Aug 2021
The Public Accounts Committee has published the final report from their COVID-19 Cost Tracker Update inquiry, finding substantial risk levied to taxpayer finances through government response.
Why is SME funding accessibility determined by UK location?
  • Article
  • 04 Aug 2021
Although there are many national providers and government-backed schemes for micro-businesses these are still not evenly distributed, says Yvonne Gale, CEO at NEL Fund Managers.

Latest tax news

Tax implications of the UK’s new freeports explained
  • Article
  • 04 Aug 2021
Eight new freeports offering significant tax incentives will start operating across England by the end of 2021. ICAEW’s Tax Faculty is hosting a free webinar for its members outlining the potential benefits and pitfalls for businesses.
Digital marketplaces to report sellers’ incomes to HMRC as early as 2023
  • Article
  • 04 Aug 2021
HMRC has confirmed that the UK will be adopting the expanded version of the OECD reporting rules for digital platforms, meaning that websites and apps will have to report the incomes of sellers of goods as well as personal services, potentially from January 2023.
HMRC enquiry is valid if taxpayer’s agent acts upon it
  • Article
  • 04 Aug 2021
In deciding the Tinkler case the Supreme Court has ruled that despite HMRC sending an enquiry notice to the wrong address, the taxpayer could not claim the enquiry was invalid as his tax advisers acknowledged the enquiry.
Tax news in brief
  • Article
  • 04 Aug 2021
Highlights from the broader tax news week ending 4 Aug, which includes: confirmation of closure of UK customs systems; updated guidance on cross-border NI and social security payments; OBR forecast requested for late October; and time limit to opt to tax land reverts to 30 days, but e-signatures remain.

When Chartered Accountants Save the World

The world is changing – and so is the role of chartered accountants. Our major new content series explores how chartered accountants are helping to tackle some of the most urgent social challenges within the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and considers how the profession could do even more in the future. Are you ready?

Two business professionals walking side by side
It’s time for chartered accountants to save the world
  • Article
  • 30 Apr 2021
Chartered accountants must understand their unique role in making a sustainable future happen, argues Peter Bakker, CEO of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
Peter Margaritis, author of ‘The Accidental Accountant’
Don’t make accounting a foreign language
  • Article
  • 30 Apr 2021
As chartered accountants increasingly help colleagues or clients, they must to learn to become better communicators, argues Peter Margaritis, author of ‘The Accidental Accountant’.
Three people sitting at a news desk
How chartered accountants can help to safeguard trust in society
  • Video
  • 30 Apr 2021
Crumbling levels of trust in data and information is a part of a drop in trust more generally. Learn how chartered accountants will be called on to help, now and in the future.
Ed Humpherson
Shaping the public’s trust in data and information
  • Article
  • 30 Apr 2021
Ed Humpherson holds the UK government to account for the data that it publishes. He argues that chartered accountants have a key role to play.
Woman in teal jacket
The goals that represent the most urgent challenges facing humanity
  • Article
  • 30 Apr 2021
We look at how chartered accountants are addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and how the profession could be impacted by them.
Tracy Staines, Inspector General, The Global Fund
Trust in data has helped us raise $45bn to tackle global epidemics
  • Article
  • 30 Apr 2021
Tracy Staines, Inspector General at The Global Fund, has built on her core accountancy skills to ensure huge amounts of money are spent appropriately where they’re needed most.

The Crisis of Trust in Data and Information

We consider the role that chartered accountants play in safeguarding data and information that is accurate and objective.

4 ways for chartered accountants to stop criminal activity in their organisation

Chartered accountants can help to spot and prevent fraud from taking place. We examine a real case of a business that discovered its chief financial officer had been falsifying accounts. The real case of a chief financial officer who tried to manipulate his company's financial position to support its share price, and 4 ways that chartered accountants can help to stop similar criminal activity in their organisation. 

Business rescue

A house being built
Business rescue: the painful reality of a CVA
  • Article
  • 09 Apr 2021
Managing director of Perfection Alloys, Fraser Dick, speaks about how hard decisions and empathy from his insolvency practitioner helped his business successfully weather insolvency.
Two hands in silhouette
Insolvency: growing fatigue among ailing businesses?
  • Article
  • 08 Apr 2021
While formal insolvency numbers are lower now than they were pre-Covid, the statistics may be masking many businesses on the brink and many more whose business owners will question whether it’s worth carrying on as the year continues.
Cup of coffee
Insolvency in an atypical recession
  • Article
  • 06 Apr 2021
According to Greg Palfrey of Smith & Williamson, we’ll see waves of insolvency this year as sector by sector, businesses feel the pinch.
People shaking hands
Business rescue: don’t wait and see before seeking help
  • Article
  • 31 Mar 2021
We’re at a pivotal point as we start the transition out of lockdown. Now is the time to engage with professional advisers, including restructuring and insolvency practitioners.

Insights specials

A listing of one-off Insights specials that focus on a particular subject, interviewing the key people, identifying developing trends and examining the underlying issues.

Access to finance: supporting small businesses
  • 04 Aug 2021
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, ICAEW Insights examines the finance options and support available to small and growing UK companies, and the entrepreneurs behind them.
Equity, diversity and inclusion: why accountants should care
  • 29 Jul 2021
An in-depth exploration of diversity and inclusion in accountancy, considering ethnicity, social mobility, gender equity, sexual orientation, disability and intergenerational fairness.
Building a better UK tax system
  • 13 Jul 2021
As HMRC embarks on a 10-year review of tax administration, ICAEW examines the potential opportunities and challenges to reforming the UK's tax system to be fit for a digital future.
The economics of biodiversity
  • 20 May 2021
In 2019, the UK was the first major government to commission a review into the economics of declining biodiversity. We speak to the team behind the review to find out what it means for business and the profession.

Top videos

What the Dasgupta Review means for business and accountancy

Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta sat down with ICAEW to talk about his review into the economics of biodiversity and his hopes for the future.

Navigating a pandemic through data visualisation

What the COVID-19 crisis can tell us about visualising data effectively.

The opinions expressed by external guest speakers in interviews or other publications included on this website are, by their nature, those of the speaker. They are not necessarily fully endorsed by the ICAEW or purport to reflect the official policies and views of the ICAEW or its members.

Top podcast episodes

A person in business attire standing in a busy outdoor space on a telephone with blurred people moving around them.
Blurring boundaries, e-money accounts and the future of tax
  • Podcast
  • 22 Jul 2021
ICAEW’s Sophie Wales, Philippa Kelly and Lindsey Wicks join host Tom Herbert to discuss the boundaries between accountants’ personal and business lives, the fifth SEISS grant and the difference between e-money and bank accounts.
Women talking
Women on boards - how do we reach equality?
  • Podcast
  • 14 Jul 2021
The pandemic has pushed back gender parity across the UK FTSE 350 to 2036, with women holding just 22% of all executive committee roles. Just 15 of the top companies have female chief executives. While we’ve made some progress in recent years, what needs to change to reach true equality? ICAEW's Susanna Di Feliciantonio and Jane Berney discuss the issue with a panel of experts.
Two people at a computer talking
The BEIS White Paper – how do we measure audit quality?
  • Podcast
  • 05 Jul 2021
High profile frauds and corporate failures has put the spotlight on auditors. Regulators have questioned the quality of audits and the lack of competition in the audit market, leading to some of the more contentious elements of the BEIS whitepaper. What’s the right approach?
Sand timer
The BEIS White Paper – how do we restore trust through corporate governance?
  • Podcast
  • 30 Jun 2021
Trust in business and other institutions, such as Parliament and the press, has been declining for decades. How do we reverse the tide? Do the measures in the BEIS whitepaper set out a path to build back trust?

Top charts of the week

Chart of the week: Tokyo Olympics cost update
  • Article
  • 22 Jul 2021
Cost overruns have been a recurring feature of the modern Olympic movement, but the pandemic has blown the doors off the budget for the Tokyo games.
Chart of the week: UK-EU financial settlement update
  • Article
  • 15 Jul 2021
This week’s chart is on the UK-EU withdrawal agreement financial settlement. Perhaps surprisingly given recent press coverage, ICAEW’s analysis is that it remains roughly unchanged from the Treasury’s 2018 estimate.
Chart of the week: OBR climate change scenarios
  • Article
  • 08 Jul 2021
Our chart this week is on the OBR Fiscal Risks Report, highlighting how delaying action to achieve net zero could double the cost to the public finances compared with acting more quickly.
Chart of the week: UK population of 67.1m
  • Article
  • 01 Jul 2021
This week’s chart covers the pre-census population estimate of 67.1m for June 2020 just released by the Office for National Statistics. Do more deaths, fewer births and returning migrants mean the 2021 number will be smaller?

Top Infographics

5 key areas of the BEIS White Paper

5 key areas of the BEIS White Paper

This chart reflects the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority (ARGA)’s significant new powers and the expanded director and auditor duties being proposed in the BEIS White Paper.

It shows at a glance the main areas the White Paper addresses, from establishing ARGA to improving the reliability of audits.

Insights by topic

CEO and President's insights
  • Listing
  • 03 Aug 2020
View an archive of blogs from ICAEW CEO, Michael Izza, and from past ICAEW presidents.
Climate hub Climate change, or the climate emergency is an issue that is defining our time. Are you professionally ready to mitigate the risk and maximise the opportunity of climate change?
Coronavirus (COVID-19) hub Coronavirus is not just a world health emergency; it is an economic one too. The economic impacts are plain to see and emergency provisions are being made worldwide in an attempt to support individuals, business and anyone who advises them. ICAEW is monitoring the situation closely and collating resources as conditions unfold.
Brexit – impact on ICAEW members ICAEW's Brexit hub highlights a range of resources to help you prepare for the end of the transition period on 31 December 2020. ICAEW is working to ensure that business and the profession is able to work as seamlessly as possible in the public interest across Europe and beyond.
COVID-19: global recovery Recovery from the worldwide economic crisis brought about by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic will be piece-meal but informed by initiatives from around the world. While national government schemes will continue to support business and practice during the immediate crisis, international action will help shape the recovery. Here we track those regional, national and supra-national activities.
Student Insights Interviews, guides and features giving you fresh insights, innovative ideas and an inside look at the lives and careers of ICAEW students and members. No matter what stage you’re at in your journey with us, you’ll find content to suit you.
Regulation ICAEW protects the public interest by making sure our firms, members, students and affiliates maintain the highest standards of professional competency and conduct.
Sponsored content Hear what our partners are saying on topical issues impacting the accountancy profession.

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