I am qualified accountant from outside UK and have also done Advance Diploma in Management Accounting (Management Level) from CIMA-UK. I am new in UK and want to start accountancy practice, in the beginning i will like to focus on bookkeeping and then graduate to full accountant, my problem is that i am not that familiar with UK corporate and tax laws.
I will appreciate if the members can advice how to get familiar with the tax laws and where to gain the basic training.
Its always the tax that gets people and we've got a particularly difficult tax system to get your head around (common sense has very little to do with the UK tax system).
To offer your services to the public you must be covered for Money Laundering or you face a lengthy jail sentence and unlimited fine.
MLR is available either from your professional body or directly from HMRC.
For bookkeeping and basic accounancy you could try joining either IAB or ICB which are the two bookkeeping bodies and you can get MLR through either. Neither of those are any good for employment.
To progress onto heping people with their tax I would suggest ATT (Association of Tax Technicians). Generally the flow is that you learn personal tax / property taxes / self assessment. Then tax for the self employed, then tax for limited companies and finally move onto the more complex stuff (Inheritence, foreign subsidiaries, etc.). Its a huge subject and gets reinvented each year so its constant learning.
A good book to get to grips with the basics is Taxation by Alan Melville. (current version is FA13).
Hope that helps,
kind regards,
Shaun.
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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.
