Practicing Certificates - help?

tonyd

Hi

Hoping someone can help me out on this one.

I'm currently studying the Technician level with the intention of applying for a practicing certificate.

I've been employed as an accoutant for around the last 18 years, i guess mainly as a "mangement" accountant. I've lots of experience in accounts preparation, payroll, vat, budgeting, forecasting, company secretarial work etc

My quesion is how do i gain a license for ct and sa returns - i've never had to complete a return?

Any help / advice would be most welcome

Thanks
Tony

deanshepherd

Learn how to do them?!

You will be allowed to practice in areas in which you are competent.

If you have no experience in these areas then I would recommend either finding a job working in those areas to broaden your skills or perhaps to undertake some subcontract work in those areas so that your work is reviewed and you can get some feedback.

You can increase your competency in many areas by attending relevant CPD courses but the completion of tax returns is pretty fundamental and you are probably only going to get the experience you need by doing the job as an employee first.

tonyd

Thanks for the reply Dean

My question was probably poorly phrased. How "much" experience would i need e.g if i spent a year doing some "free" tax returns for a Chartered Accountant in Manchester - would that be enough?

deanshepherd

Only you will know when you are competent to do the job.

Assuming you have not worked in practice before, my gut feeling would be to get a job in the tax department of a small practice and study for ATT if you can.

Obviously you have a huge amount of experience from the accounting side of things but there are so many nuances to tax that you only ever learn about through experience that I think you will find it a worthwhile thing to do and will make life so much easier when you do set up your own practice.

Or if that is something you will really rather not do then perhaps set up your practise doing the things you are good at (accounts, VAT, payroll) and then have a word with a local accountant and see if they can't review your tax work for you for a share of the fee.

I have other MIPs who send me their draft corporation tax comps as they do not feel completely comfortable with corp tax but it is only a matter of time before they gain confidence and start doing it all themselves.