The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) issues new guidance on company solvency and going concern basis April 18, 2016 The accountancy watchdog has today issued new guidance for companies on how to make it clear in their accounts whether their business can afford to keep running for the foreseeable future. The report published by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) aims to help directors to understand the going concern basis in accounting alongside the relevant disclosure requirements. The [...]
The EU Audit Directive – trying to make sense of it all and what it means for businesses and their accountants April 17, 2016 Time is running out before implementation of the EU Audit Directive on 17 June 2016. The Directive will have a significant impact on audit and advisory firms and the way they operate with Public Interest Entities (PIEs). Both companies and the audit and advisory firms need to plan for this change, and be ready for the final UK [...]
EY has now banked over $500m from the 2009 Nortel bankruptcy as legal fees continue to balloon April 12, 2016 EY, previously known as Ernst and Young, has now raked in over $500m (£354m) in fees from the collapse of Canadian tech giant Nortel over the last seven years, the London based accounting giant has confirmed. The total fees to all legal parties in the long-running case over how to divvy up the $7.3bn remnants of the [...]
Aim-listed law firm Gateley has acquired tax specialist Capitus April 11, 2016 Share price in Gateley rose today after the Aim-listed law firm snapped up Capitus, a tax incentives adviser. Capitus, which Gateley has purchased for £2.7m in shares and cash in what is its first acquisition since listing on the exchange, raked in revenues of £1.4m and an operating profit of £593,000 for its year ended June 2015. Gateley, [...]
Legislation is now too long for parliament to read properly, and it’s threatening the status of the rule of law April 8, 2016 A fundamental principle of law could be under threat because of the increasing length of new legislation. A report out today by the Centre for Policy Studies (CPS) warns that the number of clauses in new legislation has doubled since the 1960s, putting the rule of law – essentially the idea that nobody is above the law [...]
Wikileaks goes on tweeting bender, accuses everyone from George Soros to the US government of being behind Panama Papers leak April 7, 2016 It's no secret Wikileaks is pretty put out by the fact it wasn't the one to leak the Panama Papers. The organisation, which has been behind some of the biggest whistleblowing data leaks over the past few years, has spent much of the past week making it known how disgruntled it is, with tweets like "WikiLeaks didn't lead [...]
Lawyer for the Serious Fraud Office urges courtroom not to overcomplicate Libor and to focus on the issue of honesty April 5, 2016 A lawyer representing the UK’s fraud squad in the latest Libor trial today urged a courtroom not to mystify Libor and instead focus on the defendants’ dishonesty. In his opening argument for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), James Hines QC told those at the trial of five former Barclays bankers that “the most important element of [...]
US court agrees BP civil settlement for Deepwater Horizon oil spill April 5, 2016 A US court signed off on BP's civil settlement for $18.7bn (£13.2bn) relating to the Deepwater Horizon incident late last night. BP has agreed to pay damages to the United States government as well as the Gulf States of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The payments have been staggered so some will be payable as late [...]
Panama papers law firm founders begin damage limitation April 5, 2016 The founders of the law firm at the centre of the Panama papers tax evasion scandal have begun damage limitation, calling the investigation a "media witch hunt". In an interview with the Financial Times, Mossack Fonseca founder Ramon Fonseca said the disclosure was undermining legitimacy of offshore companies. Fonseca blamed hackers, and adding that in the [...]
HM Revenue & Customs heaves deep sigh, promises it’s looking into the Panama Papers April 4, 2016 HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has said it will "closely examine" data it receives from the so-called Panama Papers leak, and vowed to act on it "swiftly and appropriately". In a statement following a massive leak last night of papers from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which purport to reveal how some of the world's [...]