I stumbled across the BKN purely by chance while searching the interwebs for something else. Being a firm believer in 'there's no such thing as coincidence' - I decided to play along and see what the universe has in mind for me now.
A bit of background info might shed a little more light ;)
I apologize in advance, this post may be a little long - I shall however attempt to keep it interesting though!
I was born in Yorkshire in the 70's - my parents like many back in those days - got tired of the cold and dragged me off to sunny Cape Town, South Africa when I was very young. I did my schooling, at 14 I met up with my boyfriend who has now been my husband for 27 years, (also British with parents like mine haha), fell pregnant at 15 (my son is now a hunky 31 year old and head of design at LG in London - yip proud mommy :D), had to leave high school, went to college where I studied Accounting, Business Econ, Computers (was fun back in '86!) and a few other subjects. I started my first job at 17 as a receptionist, knowing that I wanted to do more with my life I used to harrass my colleagues in the accounting department to teach me what they knew and in exchange I would do their filing. My boss noticed this and a few months later he offered me a bookkeeping position within the company. This is when my career in bookkeeping/accounts started, funnily enough I always wanted to be a clinical psychologist, my choices of course led me down a different path - the universe clearly had other plans though lol!! After many years of working at a variety of firms and gaining more and more experience as I missioned along, My last job before starting my own practice was the Group Financial / HR Manager for a large telecomms company in South Africa - there were times when I used to question how a young girl who nearly ended up with little education and a baby to look after and no prospects got here.... it keeps you humble and focused, that's for sure!
After the global recession which started in 2009 finally hit us in 2011 and the telecomms company closed its doors and we all lost our jobs, I decided that never again would someone else hold my future in their hands and I started my own bookkeeping practice. I started out with a desk, chair, PC, printer and Sage Pastel Accounting software, built up the business from scratch and at time of sale in November 2015 it was a thriving little business with a great client list and far better office furniture ;) Incidentally the business was purchased by the Chartered Accountant that I worked in association with - he did all the financial statements for my clients.
In February 2015 my husband finally gave in to my carping about coming home to the UK (I had been wanting to do so since the 90's) - unfortunately his 30 years of service with the company he worked for was being threatened with redundancy and the crime in South Africa was becoming too much for us - I've been held up at gunpoint and both my sons had their bicycles stolen at knifepoint - there were many similiar incidents over the years, it all just gets too much after a while. My husband then 48 who little to no chance of finding a job if he were made redundant, and my youngest son who was in his final school year also had very little chance of finding work either - so the decision was made. The four of us made our plans, got our passports in order, sold our house, all our furniture, found my bulldog a lovely home (the most difficult thing I had to do really) - we literally turned everything we had worked for over the last 32 years into cash. Hubby was set to resign in December and cash in his pension, as luck would have it, he was made redundant at the end of October - so just as well we got a head start on it all. My youngest wrote his final exam on the 25th November and on the 27th him and his brother got on a plane and came over. We finalised everything on our side and got into our plane with 4 suitcases and a lot of fear about the future on the 22nd January - and here we are! The boys settled far quicker than we did, found jobs and a place to stay with ease - we took a little longer. We started in London and a chance visit to my husbands parents in Devon found us settling there in July 2016. My husband and I after working steadily for the last 32 years took the last year off from life to assimilate and just generally figure everything out. Culturally we are South African but at heart we have always been very patriotic Brits - the transition has not been easy - just getting used to walking freely around after dark here has been strange lol!! We are used to not leaving the house after dark because in SA that's not always safe, whereas here it is completely different. But, it is good to be where we have always considered home, failure is not an option and we have to make this work.
Hubby started job hunting in February 2017 and is finding it near impossible to even secure an interview - CV's are sent, no responses and the few that do respond - well let's just say they don't ever amount to much. It's disheartening for him, he turned 50 a few weeks ago and it breaks my heart to see how down he is at times :(
The universe of course had its own plans for me again, I secured a position with a firm of Accountants down in Devon before we left London - however a few weeks after we got here a routine blood test at our new doctor came back with some anomalies, this resulted in me having to go for a ton of tests and bone marrow biopsies and I opted to resign as I did not think it fair to my new employer to take off every time the hospital wanted to prod me some more.... so I resigned. I got a diagnosis four months later. I have a chronic blood disorder which fortunately does not yet require me to go on the hardcore chemo drugs, however the disorder does change over time and this is an eventuality I will have to deal with in about 10 years according to the hematologist, so as I see it, I have 10 good years to build up another small business here and was actually all set to start a recruitment business (which is part of what I did at my own company, for accountants, bookkeepers, etc) - then I landed on BKN and I started questioning everything!!
I think this post is well long enough and will create a new thread in the right forum with regards to my thoughts and questions going forward.
If you read this through to the end, thank you - if you didn't... well I can't blame you :)
Look forward to engaging with you all, from what I have seen thus far this is a great group of people offering some seriously sound advice.
Onwards,
Kim
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"If I must start somewhere, right here and now is the best place imaginable." Richelle E. Goodrich
Welcome to the site Kim What is it that you are looking to do? Recruitment? Or thinking of setting up as a self employed bookkeeper or Accountant? If so, wondering about the quals you have, clearly transferable to a point as you got the uk job easily by sounds of it. What is it you have and with which prof body? Bit confused about that part. Sorry no glasses so I'm sure I missed parts as couldn't see it very well so only scan read it (for now)
-- Edited by Cheshire on Saturday 1st of April 2017 09:50:19 AM
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Wow, you've lived life, that's for sure. Welcome to the forum Kim, sounds to me like you want to get back into accounting.
Whereabouts in Yorkshire? I'm from there myself, currently in Ripon, North Yorkshire (my home town) but moving to Doncaster or Chesterfield later this year, as Doncaster is where the majority of my clients are.
You don't sat what your husband's skills are but could he do anything self employed wise? Sadly trying to get a job when you're over 50 is difficult, and I would imagine it's even harder in a rural county like Devon. Is Bristol too far to commute? I lived there for 3 years when I was 19 and loved the place.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
What a lovely post Kim and welcome!
Good luck with what you choose...for me recruitment seems a bit cutthroat where I am. Bookkeeping/accountancy can be a more peaceful existence (with the right clients of course).
@Cheshire - Recruitment was what I thought I wanted to do until I came across this forum. I was wary about getting back into accounting on a self employed basis because there are a number of differences on VAT, payroll, etc between SA and UK. Then I got to thinking, I'm fairly intelligent - surely I can learn at 47 :) During my life I have always taken the path of most resistance, why should that change now.
I have no formal qualifications other than an Accounting Diploma completed through UNISA in 2007, but I consider myself QBE with nearly 30 years of bookkeeping and accounting behind me. In SA I belonged to a number of professional and controlling bodies, namely:
Tax Technician SA/Commissioner of Oaths The SA Institute of Tax Professionals (SAIT) Registered Tax Practitioner South African Revenue Services (SARS) Business Adviser The Institute of Business Advisers (IBASA) Bookkeepers Forum Member and Channel Partner Sage Pastel Accounting Registered Recruitment Agency The Department of Labour
All of which mean absolutely squat here and I think that's what got me feeling a little under qualified really.
@Leger - Leeds here ;) And I think you have rumbled me, accounting is my comfortable space and at my age I don't need to be proving I can do whatever just to see if I can actually pull it off.
My husband is a Senior IT Support Analyst and sadly no, he is not the kind of person that would do well in a self employed role - we discussed it at length and he does not have an entrepreneurial spirit at all. I think he has looked out Bristol way, but more out of curiosity than with actual intent. he has one or two prospects in the pipeline, one with an Australian company out this way which I think would suit him well, we are just waiting to hear if he gets selected for an interview though. Fingers crossed!
My sons are here visiting from London this weekend, but come Monday I think some serious thought into some actual direction need to be given, or back to the drawing board as they say.
-- Edited by KimH on Saturday 1st of April 2017 12:32:32 PM
__________________
"If I must start somewhere, right here and now is the best place imaginable." Richelle E. Goodrich
What a lovely post Kim and welcome! Good luck with what you choose...for me recruitment seems a bit cutthroat where I am. Bookkeeping/accountancy can be a more peaceful existence (with the right clients of course).
Cheers Mike :)
Recruitment here is horribly cutthroat and I think this is where my savior complex got the better of me and I had the overwhelming desire to bring ethics and professionalism back to the industry. I suspect I'm a little too idealistic at times though
__________________
"If I must start somewhere, right here and now is the best place imaginable." Richelle E. Goodrich
Hi Kim
Im Joanne and Leger is John. You can see our names under the signature bar on a PC/laptops, but not if you are using some of the smartphones (which I suspect you are currently using). Leeds - just about an hour from me! John is close to me, but far enough away so that Im not stealing his clients (kidding John!)
With your background if you decide to go down this route then it seems that the focus will be on reading HMRC site (!!) and perhaps, if you want exams, looking at the tax quals eg ATT or higher (depending on what kind of clients you wish to deal with).
A good start though is the VAT guide 700 - will ensure you do not ever have a sleepless night ever again as it will bore you to sleep and may indeed put you off the idea altogether. I say a good start as there are a pile of other VAT guides, then the gov.uk (dumbed down) site, the HMRC manuals on VAT and better still the VAt act itself. I say put you off as a client said to me only yesterday, with all the ridiuculousness built into just the VAT regs these days 'how ever did we make this country great?' If after reading that lot, the idea still excites then you can get stuck in at least up to TB, until you have the other taxes nailed. You dont need a prof body, but you may wish to consider one and see what exemptions you can get, but as I say its not a complete necessity. Without one you will need MLR cover (legal requirement) and PII (mad not to have it) - only mentioning that so you dont go headlong in and end up with a fat fine (or worse) for not having the former.
There is a lot of change in the sector at the moment, especially on the back of MTD (Making Tax Digital) which the government are pushing, rollout of a pilot starts this week and no-one has a clue what is going on. Anyway - have a good read round the site, ignore most things over 12months old is the general rule given the changes.
If your hubby has looked at Bristol he might consider Bath and Chippenham - bit further out but with some IT type companies about.
Hope you enjoy the site as much as we do!
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
Hi Kim Im Joanne and Leger is John. You can see our names under the signature bar on a PC/laptops, but not if you are using some of the smartphones (which I suspect you are currently using). Leeds - just about an hour from me! John is close to me, but far enough away so that Im not stealing his clients (kidding John!)
With your background if you decide to go down this route then it seems that the focus will be on reading HMRC site (!!) and perhaps, if you want exams, looking at the tax quals eg ATT or higher (depending on what kind of clients you wish to deal with).
A good start though is the VAT guide 700 - will ensure you do not ever have a sleepless night ever again as it will bore you to sleep and may indeed put you off the idea altogether. I say a good start as there are a pile of other VAT guides, then the gov.uk (dumbed down) site, the HMRC manuals on VAT and better still the VAt act itself. I say put you off as a client said to me only yesterday, with all the ridiuculousness built into just the VAT regs these days 'how ever did we make this country great?' If after reading that lot, the idea still excites then you can get stuck in at least up to TB, until you have the other taxes nailed. You dont need a prof body, but you may wish to consider one and see what exemptions you can get, but as I say its not a complete necessity. Without one you will need MLR cover (legal requirement) and PII (mad not to have it) - only mentioning that so you dont go headlong in and end up with a fat fine (or worse) for not having the former.
There is a lot of change in the sector at the moment, especially on the back of MTD (Making Tax Digital) which the government are pushing, rollout of a pilot starts this week and no-one has a clue what is going on. Anyway - have a good read round the site, ignore most things over 12months old is the general rule given the changes.
If your hubby has looked at Bristol he might consider Bath and Chippenham - bit further out but with some IT type companies about.
Hope you enjoy the site as much as we do!
***
Thanks for all the info Joanne, greatly appreciated.
MLR and PII no problem at all - had PII in SA and I had to be a registered tax practitioner with the revenue services over there in order to submit VAT & PAYE returns, I was fully expecting the same or similiar to be applicable here. I had a quick look at the Vat Guide 700 and strangely enough started feeling a bit sleepy lol... have bookmarked and will read properly when my rowdy children go home.
MTD sounds like they are simplifying tax submissions - not a bad thing. In SA we had to submit Vat returns every second month, Paye monthly and a PAYE reconcilliation every 6 months to ensure tax deductions were correct. Fantastic system really - any issues could be resolved quickly and mostly before financial year end. Vat was simpler too, flat rate of 14% with certain items being exempt.
But your advice is sound, between this forum and HMRC website, the veil should lift and if I have any other questions I know there's a wealth of solid advice to be found right here.
Have a fab weekend ;)
-- Edited by KimH on Saturday 1st of April 2017 02:46:23 PM
__________________
"If I must start somewhere, right here and now is the best place imaginable." Richelle E. Goodrich
MLR and PII no problem at all - had PII in SA and I had to be a registered tax practitioner with the revenue services over there in order to submit VAT & PAYE returns, I was fully expecting the same or similiar to be applicable here.
You can become a HMRC agent which allows you to communicate with HMRC on a clients behalf, as well as being able to submit vat, paye and tax returns and company tax returns (CT600) for them.
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John
Any advice given is for general guidance and professional advice should be sought applicable to your circumstances.
MTD sounds like they are simplifying tax submissions
Welcome to the forum Kim
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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.
MTD sounds like they are simplifying tax submissions
Made me chuckle too. Sorry Kim - NOTHING HMRC does makes anything simple. Even things they introduce to supposedly make life simpler (VAT or Tax etc) they they go back on a few years down the line and make it way more complicated than it ever needed to be because they realise that they built in a certain, lets say, slack into the process which means it benefits people when it shouldnt. This on the back of introducing RTI for payroll which has never worked as it was supposed to do. MTD is rushed, disjointed and not in the least bit scoped out despite its imminent launch. Great line from HMRC asking for agents to assist them to get taxpayers to join the pilot without answering one single bloody question about how its going to work, but blatantly fibbing about what the actual 'returns' will be used for when they do get them. What a mess!
__________________
Joanne
Winner of Bookkeeper of the Year 2015, 2016 & 2017
Thoughts are my own/not to be regarded as official advice,which should be sought from a suitably qualified Accountant.
You should check out answers with reference to the legal position
