This MLR stuff is all new since I was last doing this work. I've completed the MLR100, so I can send it in when I'm ready, and it's straightforward, but I'd just like to check a few things:
Premises
I'll be working from home, and this is the address I've put on the form, but I've got a couple of ideas for working away from home:
The big one is that I have itchy feet for my dog and I to wander off travelling in our motorhome, and I'd like part of the business to be providing a service to a particular group of people spread across the UK. I'll do a lot of it by teleworking, but like the idea of going off for a few weeks at a time, visiting clients, and sitting in the van at their homes/businesses, on campsites and in lay-bys, working in nice locations. A sort of itinerant book-keeper/accountant. And having a holiday at the same time! I spent several years living on the road, so know a lot about it!
I also had the idea of going out to places where the clients are likely to be visiting, rather than them coming to me. For example, sitting in the back room of a friend's shop in town for a few hours each week, where clients can visit to swap paperwork and discuss things when they go shopping, and maybe meet a few potential clients. And doing a bit of work when there's no one there.
Is there anything in these ideas that could cause problems with me just registering my home address?
Renewal Fee
I can't find what the annual renewal fee is on the HMRC web site. Is it £110, the same as registration, or some extortionate amount they rip you off for once they've got you hooked?
Fit and Proper Test
It looks like I don't need to do this, but just wanted to make sure I don't for doing book-keeping, management accounts, payroll and a few basic tax returns. Has anyone needed to complete this?
Voluntary Work
I've just offered to keep the accounts for a group I'm involved in that's part of a charity. If I wasn't in business, I'd just get on and do it, but do I have to do all the client identification stuff with them, or is it still just a personal thing?
I've moved it to General Bookkeeping for you. (Cos thats wat a nice person I am )
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Premises : You are still working out of your main residence even though you are spending weeks away at client sites. There is only the main office that needs to be registerd.
Renewals : No nasty surprises, just more of the same every year.
F&P : Correct, you don't need it as your an ASP. (Sure that we did that one a couple of weeks back in another thread... Hang on a sec... Yep here you go (note that the links to page 2)
Voluntary work : Sorry, I'm a banker. Let me get this right, you give them your time and you get nothing in return... Nope, makes no sense at all to me (lol).
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Voluntary work : Sorry, I'm a banker. Let me get this right, you give them your time and you get nothing in return... Nope, makes no sense at all to me (lol).
Yes, but I'm a nice guy, not a merchant banker (Is it OK to use rhyming slang here?). Anyway, this niche market I'm thinking of are people supported by the charity, so it helps raise my profile. I'm trying to start up a social enterprise too! I did things differently when I was in this business before, so I'm not going to be conventional this time! I tried to give up accountancy, but found lion taming too scary, so I'm back!
So anyway, what's the answer to my question? Do I need to do all the paperwork?
EPF_Solutions wrote:merchant banker (Is it OK to use rhyming slang here?).
Only if you want your credit rating to disappear, lol.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
EPF_Solutions wrote:Do I need to do all the paperwork?
Personally I would not differentiate at all between a charity and a business.
The JMLSG do treat larger charities with public contributions differently to smaller ones primarily funded by Government grants.
Charities are prime areas for money laundering and terrorist funding.
As such the letter of the guidance matters little (sure that there are large debates to be had about the wording of the regulations in relation to entities not run as businesses) in that you have an overriding responsibility as a financial professional to ensure that you know your client and the source of their funding whether that client is an individual, a business or a charity.
The above is my personal view which err's on the side of me staying out of jail rather than trying to argue the letter of the legislation.
Others may have different interpretations plus of course you could go to your professional body for their stance on charity clients.
kind regards,
Shaun.
p.s. And you thought that lion taming was difficult!... In that business would lion tamers be classified as consumables?
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
p.s. And you thought that lion taming was difficult!... In that business would lion tamers be classified as consumables?
The stock card could be interesting :) And so could the stock valuation! LIFO, FIFO - what happens if only half the lion tamer is eaten?
In a similar manner to construction contracts (or in this case deconstruction contracts) the consumption of the lion tamer would need to be recorded in the period to which it related.
It would need to be a FIFO valuation model but I'm more concerned with how we value any wastage.
Tut, accountant humour huh. lol.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
The question wasn't really about whether it's a charity or a business. It was about doing my day job voluntarily in my free time. Like if a taxi driver takes his neighbour to the doctors in his spare time, does he have to follow all the taxi driving rules, or if a carpenter puts up a shelf for his neighbour does he have to worry about all the health and safety stuff.
If I do the books FOC for a local club who do a bit of trading, that might be declarable, or volunteer for a charity, does all the paperwork have to be done, or am I off duty? I imagine that a lot of small groups wouldn't want to know about the hassle, and Big Brother watching them.
Ok, scrap the idea of a charity alone and widen it out to any business, individual or charity that you service.
As an ASP you are registered for MLR, you are running it as a business and you are deciding which clients you apply MLR procedures to. Your cut off point being whether they give you any money or not.
Thats not right.
The key is not whether they give you money but whether they are doing anything untoward.
You are their representative, you have a legal duty to know your client whether they pay you or not.
In the analogy that you use about the taxi driver see what happens if the passenger is injured on the way to the doctors.
Not that its a sound analogy as where a taxi driver is not always a taxi driver, once you start offering your services to the public then it is you that becomes a responsible person in everythig that you do. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
If you give advice to someone down the pub and they act on that advice which proves not to be the best advice for their situation then they can sue you for that even though no contract was in place as no money changed hands.
MLR are like that.
If you are registered for MLR there is no 9-5 remit on that. We have no choice where or how we apply such.
Conversely if you were not registered because you were not a business and you helped your local boys 5 a side with their books then that is a quite different scenario.
What you can do is adjust the level of your procedures based on risk based factors.
The JMLSG give the example of a charity in that a charity funded by a Government grant will not require the same level of KYC procedures as a multinational charity such as a disaster fund.
They do not say that either will need no procedures performed and to my knowledge nowhere in the procedures is there an override of determining the identity of the client just because they do not pay you. (Have a look at section 7 of the regulations... Actually, especially 7.1(d) which is not really emphasised in HMRC documents but is there in them).
If people want to be a business or a charity then they have got to accept that everything that they do will be scrutinised. If the don't want that then they shouldn't be in business or running a charity.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
MLR is precisely why I won't help my other half with his club accounts.
As Shaun says - having chosen to be professional bookkeepers/accountants we no longer have the freedom to let rules slide. It doesn't matter who you are helping or if they pay or not. You are using your professional skills, professional rules apply.
When you fill in your MLR paperwork you can allow your personal knowledge to reflect in the risk assessment but the paperwork should still be done. Apart from anything else you may be in breach of your licence and insurance if you don't!
Basically yes. If your assessment paperwork is anything like the on-line version I have to complete with the ICB it's pretty cut and dried. Just dot the i's and cross the t's and the only variant is my personal assessment of risk - which does not always match the computers assessment.
Sorry, not posted / been around in a while. I do some charity work in my free time (I don't like to talk about!). If there's a requirement for MLR to go through due diligence then can expenses related to that charitable work (ie travelling costs etc...) be claimed? Up till now I've not claimed such as it's my contribution to the work. Interested in your viewpoints, though I guess there's an ethical argument for not reclaiming, even if it were allowable.
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