“‘Is simplified advice a realistic venture?'”

Dec 13, 2023 | Financial Services

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

If we give you actual financial advice which results in you doing something which we arrange for you, then we’re giving you advice. If we, as we often do when someone gets in touch whom we can’t really help, ‘point you in the right direction’ and let you get on with it, is that ‘advice’ or ‘guidance’? What’s the difference? Well, that’s what this debate is all about, as if it’s ‘advice’, we carry the can, and shouldn’t have told you anything without fully appraising your financial and probably personal situation and inside leg measurement. Which takes time and will cost you money. If we give you a bit of guidance, you sort it out for yourself, and it goes wrong, whose fault is that? Quite possibly ours; and there’s the rub.

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“HMRC: ‘digitalising tax process could close gap’”

“HMRC: ‘digitalising tax process could close gap’”

You, like a majority of both taxpayers and accountants, may have been sweating and cursing over a keyboard last week to submit a last-minute tax return. Many by the end of that accursed process will have been shouting ‘bring back paper!’, a vain and pointless hope, I’m afraid.