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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

Prepare for 2026

  • Hub page
Accountants face some significant challenges, but also some key opportunities in 2026. Hear from ICAEW experts on the important issues that members need to be thinking about over the next 12 months.
Browse resources

Latest news

How SMEs should prepare for audits
  • Article
  • 20 Apr 2026
For SMEs falling outside the scope of audit exemption – either because their annual turnover, assets or number of employers are above the threshold – the process of undergoing an audit can be daunting. Find out how to effectively prepare to ensure it goes as efficiently as possible.
How hospitality teams are embracing real-time analytics
  • Article
  • 17 Apr 2026
With so many cost pressures facing hospitality businesses, the ability to analyse data in real time has never been more important for cost management.
Chart of the week: a £3tn economy
  • Article
  • 17 Apr 2026
Our chart this week is on how GDP for the UK reached £3.0tn for the first time in 2025. This is a 58% increase over the course of a decade, mostly driven by a combination of inflation and a rising population, resulting in a relatively small amount of per capita economic growth.

Latest tax news

Over 25,000 winter fuel payment scam referrals made to HMRC
  • Article
  • 16 Apr 2026
HMRC has confirmed that it will not send texts or emails asking for winter fuel payments to be repaid, or to request bank details, as it warns pensioners to be on “high alert for scams”.
Give your views on the tax issues facing small businesses
  • Article
  • 15 Apr 2026
Small businesses and agents can provide feedback on a range of areas, including Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax, by completing the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board’s (ABAB) annual survey.
Thousands of taxpayers could be missing out on tax refunds
  • Article
  • 15 Apr 2026
Employees and pensioners are encouraged to check if they are due a pay as you earn (PAYE) tax refund. HMRC’s figures suggest that more than 730,000 PAYE refunds went unclaimed last year, with the average refund worth £855.

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.

Prepare for 2026
  • Hub page
Accountants face some significant challenges, but also some key opportunities in 2026. Hear from ICAEW experts on the important issues that members need to be thinking about over the next 12 months.
How to fix VAT
  • Hub page
ICAEW explores the challenges and opportunities offered in reimagining VAT and it's application. Read about the history of VAT, the lessons that can be learned from outside the UK and the potential of digitalisation.
Global Ethics Day
  • Hub page
ICAEW celebrates Global Ethics Day each year. The 2025 theme is "Ethics Re-envisioned,” challenging us to think boldly about how we embed ethical principles into the heart of our organisations.

Accounting Intelligence

ICAEW has created a range of resources to support members in business and practice build their understanding of AI. There are video masterclasses, as well as features discussing opportunities, challenges, limitations, risk management and ethics.

Browse resources Watch AI masterclasses
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Videos

AI masterclass Konrad Bukowski-Kruszyna ACA, Head of Audit Data Analytics, RSM UK outlines how generative AI can help ensure that audit sampling is being handled correctly.
AI masterclass on better audit sampling
  • Video
  • 29 Oct 2024
Konrad Bukowski-Kruszyna ACA, Head of Audit Data Analytics, RSM UK outlines how generative AI can help ensure that audit sampling is being handled correctly.
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What is VAT?
  • Video
  • 19 Nov 2024
Value added tax is a vital tool for raising revenue to fund education, healthcare and more. We explain how it works and how it could be improved.
AI masterclass Jenny Blewett FCA, Head of Finance at Costello Medical talks about how she used generative AI to help check her firm’s banking controls when she was new in post
AI masterclass on reviewing company controls
  • Video
  • 30 Oct 2024
Jenny Blewett FCA, Head of Finance at Costello Medical talks about how she used generative AI to help check her firm's banking controls when she was new in post
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Private equity: is it here to stay?
  • Video
  • 22 May 2024
Matt Meadows, Managing Partner, Moore Kingston Smith, and Caroline Monk, Executive Partner, Beever and Struthers, on their views of private equity on the accountancy sector.

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.

Podcast episodes

Is AI accelerating the brain drain?
  • Podcast
  • 14 Apr 2026
AI is already having an impact on the make-up of audit teams and there’s some evidence it’s already reducing the number of junior roles. But it’s all still new, and developing all of the time. What about the medium and longer term effects? How might it change training and career paths and will it ultimately boost or diminish the appeal of a career in accountancy?
Making sure a tax return is correct and complete
  • Podcast
  • 07 Apr 2026
In this episode, we explore the implications of recent changes to how tax returns should be prepared and HMRC enquiries are conducted, focusing on new HMRC guidelines for ensuring that a tax return is correct and complete and changes to the requirement to notify HMRC of an uncertain tax treatment.
What does the Iran conflict really mean for British business?
  • Podcast
  • 31 Mar 2026
We’ve already seen immediate spikes and fluctuations in the oil price and the wider financial and commodity markets. But how will the UK economy be affected in the months to come and how heavy a price will British business pay? RSM Chief Economist Tom Pugh shares his thoughts.

Charts of the week

Chart of the week: a £3tn economy
  • Article
  • 17 Apr 2026
Our chart this week is on how GDP for the UK reached £3.0tn for the first time in 2025. This is a 58% increase over the course of a decade, mostly driven by a combination of inflation and a rising population, resulting in a relatively small amount of per capita economic growth.
Chart of the week: international trade
  • Article
  • 10 Apr 2026
This week’s chart illustrates how a £205bn surplus on trade in services was offset by a £243bn deficit on trade in goods to result in a net trade deficit of £38bn in 2025 – or £16bn if trade in precious metals is excluded.
Chart of the week: the start of a new fiscal year
  • Article
  • 02 Apr 2026
Our first chart of the financial year starting 1 April 2026 looks at the government’s £1.4tn budget for 2026/27.

Insights by topic

Student Insights
  • Hub page
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.
Insights index
  • Listing
This page provides an entry point to the articles that have formed the daily, monthly and weekly member emails, arranged by section and month. It also contains an index of themed Insights specials and the Quarterly magazine.
Diversity and Inclusion
  • Hub page
ICAEW is committed to Diversity and Inclusion. In this hub we bring together timely D&I resources on the protected characteristics of the Equality Act, along with our latest insights into diversity in the profession.
Regulatory News
  • Listing
A round-up of regulatory and conduct updates and communications from the ICAEW Professional Standards Department.
Sponsored content
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Hear what our partners are saying on topical issues impacting the accountancy profession.
Insights archive
  • Listing
In this section you can read some of the best material that was in ICAEW's monthly magazine, Economia, as well as from the Insights section published in 2020.