BUFDG Digest 25 January

BUFDG

Over the last couple of years there has been a huge amount of work done towards (and much written about) universities achieving net-zero. Over the last year BUFDG has been one of the partner group of organisations involved in the production of a report called ‘Accelerating towards Net Zero’, which was published this week by The Royal Anniversary Trust and the EAUC. Subtitled ‘A sector-led proposal for action and co-ordinated thinking’, the publication is supported by the Department for Education, which describes it as “a welcome blueprint for innovation across the sector on our journey to Net Zero”. We encourage all UK universities to engage with the report at the most senior level and to use the BUFDG network to contact colleagues at the universities who have been involved in this project. We are pleased that we have been able to join sister PHES organisation AUDE in contributing to this work, along with the support of CUBO and HESPA.   

Fifteen BUFDG member universities are featured within the report, which has three main objectives: firstly, to share knowledge; secondly to propose a Standardised Carbon Emissions Framework (SCEF); and thirdly to make policy recommendations to government. Its mission is for UK tertiary education to be “a global leader in accelerating the climate emergency response.” It also has recommendations in common with Mission Zero, a recent report by former Universities Minister, Chris Skidmore. You can find out more about the report via this news article. The summary, recommendations, and a set of common FAQs relating to the publication and the SCEF, can be found on the EAUC website. 

In vaguely-related news, we’ve populated a few of the final sessions for the 2023 Finance Festival. We’re excited to be able to share details of the final Plenary, with Natwest’s Head of Climate Strategy Implementation, Gary Kendall, as well as an intriguing session led by Catherine Hill and Matt Lewis at Hays, looking at the challenge of recruitment and retention in a competitive market. For details of these, and the other 35 sessions, visit the Finance Festival website. We look forward to seeing you there!

There’s still time to book onto the Demystifying Finance and Budgeting in the HE sector (for Non-Accountants) course, to be delivered on-line on Wednesday 1 February and Wednesday 8 February from 9.30am – 1pm. BUFDG has worked over the years to improve understanding of university business models and demystify financial jargon, running a series of events and highly successful publications. This course has been created for non-accountants to understand more about university finance. Please share it with colleagues across the university who will find this training useful. 

SECTOR / FUNDING

The latest TRAC Development Group Bulletin has been published on the TRAC website, along with an invitation of applications for new members to join TDG.  There is also a short statement from RFG about the work it has asked TDG to take forward – on the OFS website:  Review of TRAC - Office for Students. If you have questions about any of the above, please contact Heather Williams.

The Welsh government has announced the rate of student loans and maintenance grants available to Welsh students. The increase is featured in a BBC news story, but Jim Dickinson at Wonkhe explains why it might not be taken at face value. Sticking with Wales, there’s a government announcement on an increase in medical training places,

Graduates in England from 2023 onwards could be facing new student loan repayments, thanks to the introduction of a ‘negative statutory instrument’ in Westminster. Wonkhe’s David Kernohan explains what it all means. David also has pages covering the UCAS 2022 end-of-cycle data, and HESA staff data.

ENERGY

TEC is running another energy market update webinar on 31 January at 10am. The team will be looking back at the first half of this winter and, more importantly, will be considering how this winter will likely be shaping next year’s Energy budgets. This is another opportunity for the PHES community to get together to find out more about the current state of the Energy market and to ask questions of the TEC team. The webinar is free as usual, and open to all institutions (not just TEC members). Click here for more information and to book.

You may have seen the recent press release from BEIS/Ofgem with details of the Electric Vehicle Smart Charging Action Plan, setting out the steps they are taking to make smart charging more accessible, cheaper and “the preferred method of long duration charging by 2025”. There is funding for projects looking at various technologies for harnessing smart charging, including the use of smart charging lampposts. The investment in infrastructure is a necessity if the government wants to push the country towards greener transport within a relatively short space of time.

Also, for anyone living or working within a London borough, or anyone with family inside the M25, you may have found out over Christmas that you face the ULEZ charge this summer. Diesels will have to pay £12.50 for every crossing of the threshold. With this in mind, it may be a good time to rethink your own university's benefit provision. Mazars produced a paper for BUFDG last year, Considerations when providing an electric company car as a voluntary benefit using salary sacrifice which is a good place to start if considering an electric or low emission car scheme. There are also number of discussion board posts on the BUFDG website, however, one of the most valuable resources are slides produced by the University of Worcester who, having been through the parade of providers and implemented a scheme, fed back their views of the process late last year at a member roundtable event.

A new energy scheme for businesses, charities, and the public sector has been confirmed, ahead of the current scheme ending in March. The new scheme will mean all eligible UK businesses and other non-domestic energy users will receive a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024. The scheme will provide a discount on high energy costs to give businesses certainty while limiting taxpayers’ exposure to volatile energy markets, and businesses in sectors with particularly high levels of energy use and trade intensity will receive a higher level of support. For full details of the announcement, read this article on the Gov.uk website.

TAXES

Please ‘save the date’ for the 2023 BUFDG Tax Conference. It will take place online in the week commencing 12 June and if you would like to add your ideas for sessions, speakers and development, please click here to post your thoughts on the discussion board.

We are excited to announce that the registration page for the annual off-payroll working/IR35 employment status training with Caroline Jones (BDO) and Rebecca Seeley Harris (Re:Legal Consulting) is now open and you can book yourself on here. As you are aware, under the new off-payroll working rules, all employers are expected to take reasonable care when assessing employment status. One way to prove you take reasonable care is to ensure the employees who assess status are given adequate training. Our training ticks this box and we are thrilled, once again, to be able to provide this to you as part of your university’s subscription to BUFDG (i.e. it's free to attend). Do let any colleagues know that may be interested.

HMRC has issued a summary of the responses to its consultation that sought views on consumer protection issues for individuals who claim tax repayments via repayment agents. HMRC has summarised the next steps that will “tackle the issues outlined in the consultation to help restore taxpayers’ confidence in the tax advice market”. This includes: legislation to render void assignments of income tax repayments; requiring repayment agents to register with HMRC; introducing new transparency requirements for agents in the HMRC Standard for Agents; explore introducing mandatory pre-contractual disclosure forms, and; strengthening checks on repayment agents undertaking further work

You may not have seen our article HMRC view of reimbursed ‘exempt’ benefits before the Christmas break. We are highlighting the importance of universities revisiting their policies and procedures in light of HMRC’s position on reimbursed benefits. Where employees are reimbursed the cost of ‘exempt’ benefits - including Eye tests and glasses/contact lenses, Trivial benefits, and Meals in the workplace - HMRC will not consider the cost as exempt because they believe a reimbursement is a cash payment. Cash payments should be reported through the payroll for PAYE/NIC deductions. HMRC state that only where the benefits are provided directly by the employer (i.e. paid for by the university to the provider), will they be treated as exempt benefits.

HMRC has published the guidance document Check for signs of payroll company fraud to help customers recognise signs of potential fraud. This is particularly useful for third parties (i.e. carrying out due diligence on your labour supply chain).

HMRC has made a number of changes to their guidance on claiming income tax relief for employment expenses (P87). They have added information on who cannot use the online service, confirming that claims can’t be made over the phone and added a new section on the information you need when claiming flat rate expenses.

HMRC has created a foreign income toolkit to primarily support agents with identifying areas with the Foreign Income pages of the self-assessment tax return, which are often incorrect. However, this may also be useful for universities assisting employees with tax returns.

Finally, KPMG has published this article outlining new guidance from HMRC on the ‘associated companies’ test for determining applicable corporation tax rate and payment deadlines.

JOB OF THE FORTNIGHT

Our Job of the Fortnight is for a Financial Systems Manager at Queen’s University Belfast. The successful candidate will “will work closely with the Head of Financial Systems and Business Support to support the delivery of the Financial Systems Development Programme and provide strong leadership to the Financial Systems Team and the financial systems user base across the University”. The deadline for applications is 30^th January.

There are more vacancies listed as usual on the BUFDG jobs page.