Temporary tax revenue windfalls should not be treated as if they are permanent.

FRANK Flannery is an influential guy. He has been one of Fine Gael’s leading power-brokers for over 30 years, even though he never held elected office, serving instead as an administrator and strategist. Continue reading →

At a time when Irish businesses need every advantage, a survey reveals that Irish firms are hopelessly outmoded by global counterparts when it comes to the digital economy, with just one in six SMEs using e-commerce to grow internationally.

The rate of capital gains tax should be indexed to increases in house prices as part of efforts to prevent another property bubble, economists at the Central Bank have suggested.

In a paper published this morning, they acknowledge that any such move in the current depressed housing market would “probably be unwise”. Continue reading →

“IT IS ACTUALLY unbelievable,” said the man who sold 4.75 acres in 2005 for €3 million and has just bought it back for €215,000.

Traditional business benchmarking is a high-level activity with careful target selection, substantial pre-visit planning, and a rigorous process of post-visit evaluation and implementation. You can do this, too. But don’t let a thorough and detailed approach stop you from encouraging a much simpler version of benchmarking. Remember, one of the goals is for everyone to become curious about learning and improving. Continue reading →

AN AMBITIOUS plan aimed at transforming Limerick and its economy has been launched today at the Strand Hotel.

The €250m plan – ‘Limerick 2030 – An Economic and Spatial Plan for Limerick’ was unveiled by Local Government Minister Phil Hogan, Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Housing Minister Jan O’Sullivan. Continue reading →

Powerteam, a wholly owned subsidiary of ESB, is in the final stages of completing a €3.1million electrical substation construction and fit out for SSE Renewable’s windfarm in west Limerick. Continue reading →

CPL Fuels is to create 142 new jobs in Limerick by 2015 as part of a €20 million investment in the county.

The company, which is one of the biggest manufacturers of smokeless fuels in Europe, plans to build a new bio-fuels plant at the Port of Foynes.

The company is capitalising on the intention by politicians in Dublin and Belfast to ban smoky coal by 2016.

VAT would be considered a high risk tax as it applies to transactions rather than profits. Due to the complexity of VAT, businesses may be incorrectly accounting for VAT which can result in higher VAT liabilities together with potential interest and penalties being accrued.

The following would appear to be the most common VAT errors that arise during the course of a Revenue Audit: Continue reading →

A company or group may rearrange its business activities or ownership structures by merging with another company; acquiring another company or reorganising its corporate structure.

These transactions usually involve the transfer or exchange of shares and/or the transfer of business assets or undertakings in return for shares. These transactions may be classed as “reconstructions” or “amalgamations” or “paper for paper” transactions as no actual cash passes between the parties. The exchange of shares or the transfer of assets are disposals for capital gains tax purposes. Continue reading →

The European Commission is taking France to the EU’s Court of Justice in the final stage of its action on the country’s discriminatory tax rules on new residential property.

French tax regulations allow investments in new residential property in France which is intended for letting for at least nine years to benefit from accelerated depreciation. However, there are no reciprocal arrangements for similar investments made by French taxpayers in properties to let in other EU countries to receive the same favourable tax treatment. Continue reading →

Europe needs to move to create standards and rules around business agreements and what happens to data used in cloud computing services, said Dr Andreas Goerdeler, deputy director general in charge of Information Society & Media at the German Ministry of Economics and Technology. Continue reading →

Historically, in a family business, transfer of ownership and management often coincided. Today, a more professional approach is often adopted. Ownership and management may transition at different stages. In some instances, while ownership may transition to family, at a management level, the transition is to those individuals most capable of running the business, be they family or non family employees. Continue reading →

Under the current circumstances the traditional view might be that employees just need to be happy to have a job and shouldn’t complain and just get on with their work. However, in today’s business environment employee engagement is more important than ever before. Continue reading →

The European Commission is seeking to up the fight against tax evasion within the European Union.

The Commission wants governments to automatically exchange information on a wide range of financial income earned in their countries by non-residents. Continue reading →

True or False:

We have been in contact with every single customer who has an overdue balance and we know when the payment will be in our bank.

As simple as this statement is I am sure most organisations could not answer yes to it, this is a key function of what a professional credit function is all about. Making contact with customers and getting a firm commitment from every customer on every single call – otherwise you are wasting your time. Continue reading →

When managing a ledger there are a number of factors you should take into account. Firstly there are the names of your customers that appear on your ledger, if you are a regular reader of these articles you will have read before that you have to make sure you have the correct legal entity for every single one. Just because I keep saying it and you keep reading it doesn’t mean you have it right. Continue reading →

It’s not all doom and gloom out there.

I came across this video produced by IBEC a couple of weeks ago and even though it is not the usual sort of content that I would post in AccountingNet I think that every now and again it is worth sitting back looking at some of the positives. Continue reading →