Autumn Budget 2017

AAT_Team

Thread for discussion around the Autumn budget this afternoon. We will be posting key points and expert opinion throughout the day. Feel free to jump in and add anything or ask questions.

A few pieces we have posted leading up to the budget below.

4 concerns for Philip Hammond ahead of the UK Budget

Philip Hammond views new tax collection measures for the Budget

Autumn Budget 2017: Will the nation’s small businesses get the help they require?

The budget announcement will kick off at around 12:30 GMT.

mskaat

@AAT_Team Please check your links again. Error message received.

AAT_Team

@mskaat They seem to be working fine this end. Where are you accessing them from?

Direct links here, here and here.

AAT_Team

mskaat

AAT_Team said:

@mskaat They seem to be working fine this end. Where are you accessing them from?

Direct links here, here and here.

Sorry got it... its the HTTPS settings on browser.

AAT_Team

Budget 2017: Snap verdicts from seven experts

AAT_Team

The Budget: AAT’s view on stamp duty, VAT, business rates and more

AAT_Team

Autumn Budget 2017 – the key tax implications
Autumn Budget 2017 – the key tax implications (part 2)

MarieNoelle

Mickdundee said:

This thread would have been better closed for comments.

Your comment was a fair one on SDLT.

I welcome @AAT_Team initiative to post the links on the forum - I don't always check on the AAT website as specific technical issues are not that easy to find (maybe that's just me though).

I registered on the AAT webinar on the subject and was a bit underwhelmed - I expected a discussion / more in-depth analysis of the impact of the budget rather than a series of slides merely covering what you can already find on the .gov website.

MarieNoelle

I don't get your point @Mickdundee
Surely @AAT_Team act as a facilitator on this forum and I wouldn't necessarily expect them to comment on the budget? Isn't it for other forum users to make comments?

MarieNoelle

Sure, it would be nice to see @AAT_Team a bit more on the forum. I am not sure what their role is but they may also look after other AAT social media, so have to share their job between them.

It saddens me to see this forum has become so dead. I think it bothered a lot of people not being able to post in the professional area unless they share their membership details. But there might be other reasons.

As you participate in probably over 50% of the threads on here this place will become even more of a ghost town. That's a real shame.

I will be staying around. TBH I have been quite busy lately banning spammers selling all kind of fake passports. You spot them easily when the site is not too crowded :-)

AAT_Team

Mickdundee said:

> @MarieNoelle said:

> I don't get your point @Mickdundee

> Surely @AAT_Team act as a facilitator on this forum and I wouldn't necessarily expect them to comment on the budget? Isn't it for other forum users to make comments?



Yes, but most other forums have professionals that step in and engage in debate. Some of those forums have retained professionals to do just that. Other forums I am on, the moderators and staff also give their opinion - it doesn’t have to be a professional opinion because every budge affects us all.

They certainly comment in other places, such as here:

https://forums.aat.org.uk/Forum/discussion/comment/459719#Comment_459719



The forum is absolutely dead. Perhaps AAT could learn a thing a or two from other forums?



In that note, and probably to much delight from others, I don’t really thing this forum is for me - though given the traffic, I get the feeling it isn’t really many people’s thing.



All the best

Thanks for your feedback. Would love to post here more but as a member of the marketing team (social media) I can't really answer or debate on technical accounting issues. However you can post your comments on the articles themselves, which is where the author's can then come back to you. Make sense?

Also in terms of the forums being 'dead' - that's actually not the case. Since the new design we have seen more sign-ups, more people visiting the site, who are staying longer and more uses of the search function. So vs where we were before it's an improvement.

All the best

MarieNoelle

Thanks for your answer @AAT_Team

There are valid points made by @Mickdundee and others though - I don't deny that the forum may attract more users but I would expect they are in the main students. The full members and Licensed members categories are extremely quiet at the moment and I would be interested to know why (apart from it being a very busy time of the year!)

AAT_Team

I don't want this thread to go too far off topic but we know of several reasons why activity and awareness is low from professional members. We are working on increasing both but nothing will happen over night.

As members, if I was to ask you to give me 3 reasons why a professional accountant should sign-up and put their time into regularly participating in conversations here. What would you say?

MarieNoelle

Similar reasons
I would add that the forum allows you to double check on a technical point - we all have our senior moment.
And it's a great source of information for members starting up in practice.

I also like the more "relaxed" feel - some other forums are not so forgiving.

AAT_Team

Thanks for this. Knowledge sharing and networking have been our top messages for professional members to join. When we speak to pro members though, they tend to search for what they need to know rather than engage. Perhaps we can create an 'introduce yourself' thread to get people involved.

AAT_Team

Mickdundee said:

Creating barriers does not help increase forum numbers.

https://forums.aat.org.uk/Forum/discussion/446339/you-require-permission-to-create-topics-please-read#latest

The pros far outweigh the cons.

Discussion continued here.