BUFDG Digest 9 February

BUFDG / GENERAL

A bit of sector news to start – Susan Lapworth has been appointed as the interim Chief Executive of the OfS, pending a recruitment process that should yield a permanent appointee in time for 2023.

There are a couple of big publications out in the last fortnight. Firstly, the Levelling-Up white paper finally made the light of day, with implications for universities. David Kernohan at Wonkhe has done a brilliant job (as usual) of highlighting what those might be, while there’s an argument that international students are the real drivers. A response to the Augar review could be next but, even if it doesn’t materialise, universities have been getting on with delivering anyway.

Secondly, parliament’s powerful Public Accounts Committee has decided to take a look at the financial sustainability of the HE sector (they’ll be marking DfE’s and OfS’ homework), and have put out a call for evidence. The deadline for submissions is the 14 March.

If you’re a finance professional who uses or communicates with data, then our new Effective Data Visualisation for Finance course is for you. The course demonstrates the key principles of effective data communication, and follows on from an excellent session delivered by Alan, our course facilitator at the Management Accountants Conference.  The course will look at: the principles of information design; data in context; designing for the human brain, and; navigation and narrative. The course takes place online on Monday 28 February and Tuesday 1 March from 9.30am-12.30pm both days. It costs £150 plus VAT. For more details about the course click here and, for any queries, please contact Rachel.  

NEW TaxHE

For those of you who don’t know, TaxHE is a fortnightly magazine that Julia and Andrea pull together summarising all of the key technical developments in the last 2 weeks, international changes and includes links to all of the Upcoming events (such as Regional Tax, International and PEG meetings and Tax Time to Talks.) They have now redesigned it and you can find the new PDF format here. 

It can be sent straight to your inbox.  To do that, click on the dark-grey “My BUFDG” tab on the BUFDG website main screen, scroll down and under preferences you can tick on a box that says "I would like to receive the TaxHE Newsletter via email".

If you don't have chance to dip into the BUFDG website daily or every couple of days, we hope that this summary will be a quick and easy way of keeping up to date...you can just skim through the articles and read those that are relevant to your role or university. As always Andrea and Julia are here to help.  So, if you have any questions or comments, please get in touch.

TAX

HMRC have added a video on Customs Import declarations to the Help and support for UK transition page. It has also issued this guidance on DE1/11 codes. These are the codes that indicate a Customs procedure such as inward processing or outward processing relief. And this newly-issued matrix indicates which first 4 numbers of the Customs Procedure Code can be used with the DE/11. We explain all the fun in more detail here.

A comprehensive review of the Making Education Digital Spreadsheet was carried out in January. We also updated it with minor changes at the start of February. The latest version can be found here.

A guidance document on claiming for creative industry tax reliefs has been issued by HMRC, which includes guidance on claiming relief on the following: Film Tax Relief; Animation Tax Relief; High-end Television Tax Relief; Video Games Tax Relief; Children’s Television Tax Relief; Theatre Tax Relief; Orchestra Tax Relief, and; Museums and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief.

PAYROLL AND EMPLOYMENT TAXES

BUFDG have published a database with summaries and links to current double taxation agreements, appropriate social security position, along with other useful links, on a country by country basis. It’s called the Global Mobility Country Database and should save you a lot of time in finding the appropriate information and assessing the level of overseas tax and social security risks. Read this article for more information and, if you have any queries, comments or suggestions regarding this database, please email Julia.

Whilst the Treasury Committee highlighted the NIC increase as impacting the cost of living, the Government (in an article in the Sunday Times) confirmed that the increase will go ahead, as planned from April 2022 in order to provide critical funding to the NHS. On cue, HMRC published their guidance Prepare for the Health & Social Care Levy setting out the basic changes from this April. We’ve summarised the information for you in this article.

As university personnel start to travel overseas for short visits for conferences, research, field trips, etc, it is important that the post-Brexit implications of these trips are considered. The gov.uk guide travelling to europe for work? - new rules are here is a useful resource.  It is also worth checking the website of the point of departure.  For example, this Birmingham Airport website page has useful information and links to other resources. Travellers need to plan in advance and research the rules that apply in the country that they are visiting, in case, for example, visas are required - see this gov.uk page.  Also, if equipment is being taken to a country, import/export paperwork as the goods arrive in and leave from the UK and the country that is being visited will be needed.

In case you missed it, last month we published BUFDG guidance paper on stipends, bursaries, scholarships, etc. The paper sets out the general rules on the taxation of stipends, HMRC's current position and where complexities arise. The vast majority of stipends will not be taxable. However, there are scenarios where HMRC would take a different approach because the student is carrying out day to day activities that might create an employment relationship with the university (where one doesn't already exist). For more information you can read our launch article, and if you have any feedback on this guidance or would like us to raise issues with HMRC directly on your behalf (anonymous basis), please contact Julia Ascott. A massive thanks to Paul Moreels at KPMG, Marie Christie (Liverpool), Ruth Evans (Warwick), Jon Gorman (Portsmouth) and Graham Gustard (Cambridge) for their insightful input into a tricky area.

The Court of Appeal have made a new judgement on the Pimlico Plumbers case, and have allowed the workers the right to holiday pay. In case you’re one of the few people who doesn’t have alerts for this case sent straight to their inbox, it’s a significant development that has implications for the rights of any worker to paid annual leave, whether self-employed, a ‘gig’ worker, or an umbrella worker. We break it down in this article.

BUFDG were pleased to host PwC for a Time to Talk session on global mobility - managing employee risks in a new normal.   Whilst PwC were clear that for some universities, the firefighting over the last 2 years is continuining, there are momentary glimpses of a new normal that we should be preparing for. To find out more, access the recording of the session, slides, surveys and demos.

PROCUREMENT

HEPA sits on the Transforming Public Procurement L&D Working Group on behalf of the HE sector. The first meeting of the L&D Working Group took place on the 27th Jan, and Ash’s notes from the meeting are available to read on the discussion board here. The notes cover: The background to the procurement reform L&D programme; Details on plans for the programme, format and guidance, and; An update on procurement reform timescales. Please do share your thoughts in the discussion, and do not hesitate to get in touch with Ash directly should you have any questions.

OTHER

Axiom is holding a webinar on the 17 Feb on Financial planning for Universities – Managing in uncertain times. The effects of the pandemic and Brexit have brought uncertainty to many areas of the higher education landscape, and this webinar is aimed at finance professionals who want to gain a better understanding on how to enable more accurate, agile financial decision making and planning for their organisation amid this challenging reality. For more information and to register, click here.

And, in continuing a theme, Account-Ability has published a short guide on Financial Planning in Uncertain Times, available via the Account-Ability Supporter Director page.

If your HEI is starting to consider what ‘post-pandemic’ might look like in relation to online learning, then you might find this article by Ant Bagshaw (now at OES) and Andrea Burrows interesting. It could be time for a longer-term approach. This is what students are saying about blended learning.

Not one but two ATFS bulletins this time around. The first looks introduces some of the broader services provided by the company, while the second looks at PCI-DSS compliance. Find both of these, plus past bulletins, on the ATFS Supporter Directory page.

Finally, our Job of the Fortnight is for a Finance Business Partner at the University of Essex. The successful candidate must be qualified to AAT, hold an equivalent level qualification or have substantial professional experience, and have demonstrable experience of budget preparation, reporting processes and the preparation of management accounts on a regular basis. The deadline for applications is 15 February.

You can find more vacancies listed on the BUFDG jobs page.