ATT Welcome: Never too old to learn

Jan, Bess and I are just back from a great holiday in West Wales. We have not visited there before but will certainly be returning. Apart from the glorious scenery and dog friendly beaches (which Bess particularly enjoyed), it was also an object lesson in what a small world it is and the power of social media. A small world in that we discovered that our hosts used to live about a mile and a half from us. As for the power of social media, our hosts generate all their business by posting stunning photographs showing how beautiful the area around their cottage is and how much there is to do there. Their guests always seem happy to share these pictures with their friends!

The ATT is also harnessing the power of social media and is running our Step into Tax marketing campaign again this year to inform students and career changers of the benefits of a career in tax. This will be launched on TikTok and LinkedIn in the summer and I would encourage you to share this with young people who might be interested in tax as a career or who haven’t yet decided what they want to do when they leave school or university. You can help us to inspire the future generation and inform them of the possibilities a career in tax can offer.

The ATT Technical Team regularly post on LinkedIn and will be increasing their presence on TikTok and Instagram over the next few months. Short videos will be used to inform the public about their tax obligations and help them to get things right. For members, the Technical Team have just recorded another 12 videos which will soon be on our YouTube channel. We will post links to these on LinkedIn when they have been finalised, or you can find them in our Resource Hub on the website.

We know that ATT members and students have a career long commitment to CPD and realise that – in the world of tax – you can never know it all. This is why we produce so much material that you can draw on to ensure that you continue to grow your knowledge and capabilities. Our How to Guides on the website, particularly the MTD one, are receiving a record number of views. If you haven’t yet had a look at them, I would recommend you put this to the top of your CPD list.

If you prefer to meet with other ATT members online or face to face, our Annual Conference is back this year on 10 and 19 June for the virtual sessions and 25 June for the face-to-face session at Monck Street (booking is now open). This year also sees the introduction of our free quarterly webinars for members. The first one on ‘The end of furnished holiday lets’ took place back in February with over 1,100 members registering. The next one on ‘Goodbye to domicile for tax – an introduction to the residence-based tax regime’ is on 13 May.

If you are a Fellow, there are separate Fellow’s webinars designed especially for those with 10 or more years’ experience. If you have been a member for over 10 years and have not yet applied for Fellowship, you can do this at any time on the portal and then you can take advantage of these free events.

There are plenty of changes on the horizon. MTD for Income Tax is now less than a year away, so we need to make sure that our internal procedures are in place and that we educate clients on the impact this will have on them. The mandatory registration of tax agents also comes into force from April next year.

Finally, just over a week after the Chancellor’s Spring Statement came the US government’s announcement (paused for now) of new trade tariffs, bringing huge economic uncertainty. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the UK. However, it clearly has the potential to disrupt the Treasury’s forecasts – and may lead to tax changes in the Autumn Budget, or even before.

Nevertheless, the sun is still shining (now definitely over the yard arm) and Jan is calling for me to open the wine. So, until next month…