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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

The Future of Tax

As digital technologies transform the worlds of work and leisure, the UK government grapples with balancing the books while ensuring its tax system is fit for purpose.

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The future of tax Insights special

Latest news

Accountants urged to prioritise mental health
  • Article
  • 07 May 2021
Chartered accountants need to be kinder to themselves, recognise the signs of mental health problems and take preventative action to help keep their mental health and wellbeing on an even keel.
Future of work part 1: navigating the global talent pool
  • Article
  • 07 May 2021
The pandemic is driving an increasing number of employees to work across international borders - a trend that presents a host of complex challenges and opportunities.
Finding fraud is at the heart of audit reform
  • Article
  • 07 May 2021
Chartered accountants have an opportunity to respond to the package of reforms relating to fraud, as recommended by the Brydon Review. What do you think of the government’s proposals?
Chartered accountants are at the centre of ESG reporting
  • Article
  • 06 May 2021
Environmental, social and governance risks are both business and investment risks, and chartered accountants are at the heart of reporting on them as well as the financials.

Latest tax news

Tax news in brief
  • Article
  • 05 May 2021
Highlights from the broader tax news week ending 5 May, which includes HMRC publishing guidance on working through an umbrella company and updating guidance accompanying its CEST tool.
Everything you need to know about CJRS final calculations
  • Article
  • 05 May 2021
ICAEW’s Tax Faculty is urging employers and agents to attend a free webinar on 7 May outlining how to calculate grant entitlement under the final phase of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, rather ...
HMRC lacks resource to deliver on Charter commitments
  • Article
  • 05 May 2021
HMRC has struggled to maintain business-as-usual service levels during the coronavirus pandemic and cannot improve services as envisaged in its Charter without more resource, warns ICAEW.
HM Treasury consults on new residential property developer tax
  • Article
  • 05 May 2021
As part of a £5bn cladding remediation package following the Grenfell Tower disaster, the government is proposing a new residential property developer tax. Likely to be introduced in 2022, the tax aim...

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?

Save the world
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
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’.
Thought Leadership
How chartered accountants can help to safeguard trust in society
  • Article
  • 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.
SDG
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
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.

Watch the latest video

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 timber-frame building under construction.
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.
Silhouettes of two people talking
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 ...
A table with cups of tea/coffee, notebooks and pads, and the arms of two or people who seem to be talking.
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.
Two people shaking hands, seen from above.
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.

The future of tax
  • 01 Apr 2021
As digital technologies transform the worlds of work and leisure, the UK government grapples with balancing the books while ensuring its tax system is fit for purpose. As HMRC launches its review of t...
Economic Crime Economic crime is causing increasing disruption to every type of organisation, from established businesses to charities and public sector bodies. The frequency of attacks is rising, and criminals are ...
People and Planet in the Accounts Convergence of non-financial frameworks and standards is gaining momentum and we are beginning to see how nature and society might be included in the financial statements. But can these frameworks tol...
2020/21 Reporting Season Resources to help navigate corporate reporting given the uncertainty around COVID, Brexit and other challenges.

Top videos

Are you ready for the transition towards net-zero carbon emissions?

As the world moves to more sustainable sources of energy, Dr Angela Wilkinson of the World Energy Council sets out how businesses can adapt, and the impact of COVID-19 on the energy transition required.

Navigating a pandemic through data visualisation

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

Black History Month video series

ICAEW features a series of videos showcasing some of our most inspirational black members. They share some of their experiences and insights on issues such as leadership, skills and intersectionality in the profession.

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

Covid-19 crisis with a legacy
COVID-19 – crisis with a legacy
  • Podcast
  • 24 Jul 2020
A global pandemic has meant business needs to rise to the challenges that have developed and find a way forward through the storm. It also given us the opportunity to press reset and build businesses ...
$3.6tr – corruption, cronyism and capitalism
$3.6tr – corruption, cronyism and capitalism
  • Podcast
  • 10 Mar 2020
$3.6tr – corruption, cronyism and capitalism
12 trillion icon
$12 trillion – profiting from the planet
  • Podcast
  • 05 Nov 2019
How will the sustainable development goals benefit business?
11.9%
11.9% – mind the gap
  • Podcast
  • 15 Oct 2019
Is inequality in the workplace inevitable?

Top charts of the week

Chart of the week: G7 economies
  • Article
  • 06 May 2021
Our chart this week illustrates how in representing more than half of the world economy, decisions taken by the G7 can have a significant impact on the entire planet.
Chart of the week: The debt of G7 nations
  • Article
  • 29 Apr 2021
This week’s chart looks at how the pandemic has driven government debt levels higher, a topic that will be on the agenda at the G7 summit in Cornwall in six weeks’ time.
Chart of the week: Canada Budget 2021
  • Article
  • 23 Apr 2021
This week’s chart explores Canada’s newly minted Budget 2021, which saw its federal government lay out “a recovery plan for jobs, growth and resilience”.
Chart of the week: personal tax bands
  • Article
  • 15 Apr 2021
This week’s chart examines the complexity in the tax system and potential options for reform by looking at the number of tax bands for salaried employees across the UK.

Top Infographics

Infographic: Edelman Trust Index

Overall levels of trust in governments, business, the media and non-governmental organisations rose six points to an all-time high between January and May 2020, according to the Edelman Trust Index.

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 individual...
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 ...
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...
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 wi...
Regulation ICAEW protects the public interest by making sure our firms, members, students and affiliates maintain the highest standards of professional competency and conduct.
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