BUFDG Digest 26 April

E-LEARNING

We are pleased to announce that we've launched a brand new 'Introduction to Tax on Research' course. This is helpful to anyone responsible for deciding whether to charge VAT on income received by a university for a research project, or needing to understand whether VAT should be included in the cost of a research project. It provides an overview of how VAT applies in relation to research in the higher education context, but is not intended to be a fully comprehensive guide. 

Additionally, making you aware that our 'Corporation Tax: Managing Subsidiaries' course has recently been updated with an improved format and refreshed content. This course introduces you to calculating the taxable profits of your subsidiary company/companies.  It also explains why universities have subsidiary companies, what the tax benefits of subsidiary companies are, and how you can manage them to achieve tax efficiency.

Finally, a reminder that 'Commercialisation and Intellectual Property' is now live following our last e-learning update at the end of 2022. This course introduces commercialisation and how intellectual property is central to this activity, and explores ways that universities can use commercialisation. If your HEI subscribes to BUFDG Pro you can find all these courses on our e-learning page. 

BUFDG

In case you missed it in the last Digest, earlier this month we published the Structure of finance teams survey report 2023. This survey was conducted by popular demand and sought to gain a broader understanding of the finance leadership, functions, and departmental structures within BUFDG member universities. It offers insights into how different HE providers work and maybe some ideas if you are currently reviewing your team’s structure. The full report is now available to download from the BUFDG website, along with corresponding benchmarking data which include some information on the costs of operating the finance function. Thanks to the 80 Higher Education Providers (HEPs) from BUFDG’s membership who responded to the survey. My guess is that many more than that will read the report. Please let us know what you think of it.

SECTOR / FUNDING

UCEA has compiled some handy information and infographics on the benefits of working in HE, which is publicly available on its website. Institutions will find this useful for benchmarking too.

There has been lots of commentary on university funding over the last fortnight, in the lead up to the publication of this year’s HESA finance report. David Kernohan at Wonkhe has a typically excellent summary of what it all means and, in a separate article, makes some suggestions about how the sector might be funded differently. We can expect the OfS commentary on its assessment of the financial sustainability of the sector at the end of June.

ONS has two interesting recent data publications. The first is on the international student population in England and Wales (based on 2021 Census data), and one on public-funded expenditure on R&D by region (again using 2021 data).

SUSTAINABILITY

A briefing paper titled Assessing climate risk and strengthening resilience for UK Higher Education Institutions has been created by the UK Universities Climate Network (UUCN) to support universities in assessing their climate risks and improving resilience. Authored by 19 experts from across 13 institutions, the guidance draws on the latest evidence and is intended to be a valuable resource to support decision makers, senior leaders, sustainability practitioners and risk experts within HEIs to undertake this urgent work. EAUC, in partnership with the UK University Climate Network (UUCN), AUDE and BUFDG, are hosting an online webinar covering the report and its implications on Tuesday 5 September. The event is free and open to EAUC, AUDE, BUFDG & UUCN members. Click here for more information and to book your place. 

This overview webinar is followed by a three-part training series on how to develop Climate Impact Assessments. This online series is aimed at Estates and Sustainability practitioners, and is available free to EAUC, AUDE, BUFDG & UUCN members. Click here for more information and to book your place. 

An innovative scheme to train students to carry out energy audits at the homes of university staff throughout the Country, coordinated by the University of Worcester, is expanding thanks to funding from TEC (The Energy Consortium) and BUFDG's sister organisation AUDE (the Association of University Directors of Estates). University employees can register to have their home audited by a trained student, who will receive a bursary payment, and provide tailored energy saving advice. As part of the scheme, Worcester Bosch will review the staff member’s boiler set points and controls and can offer technical advice about how to maximise use while reducing energy consumption. All boiler makes are applicable. Students Organising for Sustainability UK (SOS-UK) has worked with National Energy Action (NEA) to develop the auditor training and home energy audits. For more information visit the AUDE website. Alternatively, you can register your interest for the scheme here. 

Applications are now open for the 2023 Green Gown Awards! The first stage of the awards is now open, and closes on 5 June 2023. Application forms and information on how to apply is available on the Green Gown website here.

PROCUREMENT

A huge thank you to all the HEPA members who attended the second Travel Booking process round-table in April 2023. You can download the notes from the session here. Please do continue to share and collaborate on the subject via the HEPA discussion board.

Last year the CMA provisionally found evidence of illegal cartels in the construction industry. The CMA has now fined 10 construction firms a total of nearly £60 million for illegally colluding to rig bids for demolition and asbestos removal contracts involving both public and private sector projects. The CMA has also secured the disqualification of 3 directors of firms involved in the unlawful conduct.  You can find out more via the CMA’s press release here.

In collaboration with the CMA, HEPA ran a time to talk exploring the dangers of bid rigging in December 2021.  You can find all of the resources shared by the CMA here.

We were delighted that Lucy Sydney and Emilia Hogarth from the Cabinet Office joined us for each of our spring 2023 Head of Procurement group meetings.  The team provided an update on the Transforming Public Procurement programme, L&D and took questions and provided answers on procurement reform more widely. All members can re-watch the update here.

We were also recently joined by Uddalak Datta, Legal Director, Shakespeare Martineau for a time to talk providing members with an update on the Procurement Bill. The session covered: the Timetable; Definition of Contracting Authority; Changes to Procurement Principles, and; Changes to Procurement Procedures. You can catch up on the time to talk here.

The UKUPC Conference 2023 takes place September 6-7 at the University of Exeter. Expect an exciting line-up of professional development sessions and shared insights, including thought-provoking plenary sessions, interactive breakout sessions, opportunities to build valuable connections, access to a wide range of suppliers, as well as Conference Dinners and Procurement Awards to celebrate excellence together. Prospective delegates can read the agenda here, and book your place now.

TAXES

Please read this if you have students accessing online learning in India. You may be aware of the recent changes to Indian GST, which has significant implications for UK institutions. The changes are expected to apply from 1 April 2023. GST at 18% will be due on online learning income where he student is located in India.

BUFDG will be drafting guidance on calculating the grossed-up income tax and National Insurance contributions due under your PAYE Settlement Agreement (PSA). With this in mind, we would like to include practical, HE focused examples and best practice. If you could answer these questions and email Julia with your responses, these will be collated/ anonymised and included in the report.

Following a recent PEG meeting, Caroline Jones of BDO has provided us with this flowchart, setting out the tax treatment if you meet the cost of charging electric cars for your employees - whether they are the employees' own car, or a company car (provided perhaps through a university salary sacrifice scheme). For those of you who like learning visually (as do I), this is a great way of getting to the answer easily.

National Institute of Health and Care Research, Health and Care Research Wales and the Health Research Authority (collectively referred to as NIHR within this article) published guidance last year on the potential tax difficulties taking on research participants or volunteers. The guidance was initially billed as a ‘work in progress’ whilst they tested how users were able to apply the guidance in practice. Following the feedback gained from the initial publication, the new and improved guidance on payments has been published.

You may have seen in our recent discussion board post, that the LPC has issued a consultation into the level of National Minimum Wage for the next round of increases. BUFDG will be responding to this consultation to reiterate the problems around salary sacrifice that would be more beneficial for the employee, but the NMW regulations prohibit participation (e.g. childcare schemes). We are seeking your feedback to include in our consultation and have reproduced the specific questions raised by the LPC. You don't have to answer all the questions (although that would be fantastic), but please do copy and paste the questions into an email, answer as many as you can/want to and email Julia by 12 May. For more information, read this article.

JOB OF THE FORTNIGHT

Our Job of the Fortnight is for a Finance Business Partner at the Open University. The successful candidate will “manage a team of finance staff in building partnerships with senior management stakeholders across the university on a cross-section of financial, accounting activities and projects. The aim is to drive impact and understanding of financial reporting on business performance and analysis, enabling a link to financial data to inform business strategies.” The deadline for applications is 9^th May. As usual, there are lots of other vacancies listed on the BUFDG jobs page.