BUFDG Digest 29 April

BUFDG

You may have noticed that this Digest is the second one you’ve received in April. After feedback from members we’re moving to a fortnightly edition for the next few months. Do let us know if it works for you (or not).

Secondly, you may have missed the tax policy briefing we published a couple of weeks ago. If you are donating or selling any goods and services to other parties, for example the NHS or the care sector, there will be tax implications. This is probably not on anyone’s priority list today, but you could find it there a few months hence when HMRC starts to look for tax take opportunities.

LEARNING

The BUFDG Financial Reporting Group and the audit firms are hosting a joint webinar between 12.30pm and 2.30pm on Friday 15th May, covering amendments and new guidance for Financial Statements. It is aimed at practitioner level, is free to attend, and will provide an opportunity to review best practice and ask questions. Click for more information and to book your place. For any queries, please contact Rachel. The webinar will be recorded and made available to BUFDG members via the website after the event.

Our e-learning competition is up, up and away. We’ve put together a guide to which modules are most relevant for your role, both within central finance and in the wider university, so you can see at a glance which modules you should work through. A reminder that colleagues have until 31st May to undertake as many e-learning modules as they can/want to. Click here for more info, and check out  the current leader board. It’s all still to learn for!

As part of our regularly series, this week we’re highlighting the Introducing VAT in HE BUFDG Pro module. While it might sound like this is a module confined to use by VAT specialists in central finance teams, that isn’t actually the case. This module was designed for all those throughout a university who have to deal with financial issues such as budgeting, purchasing or generating income, to help them understand the VAT implications of their financial decision making. Find out more about it on the website.

…and if your institution isn’t currently subscribed to BUFDG Pro, and you want to find out more, watch the webinar at the bottom of this page.

TAX

The most recent TaxHE newsletter was published last week, and these will now alternate weeks with the BUFDG Digest, now they are both fortnightly. It’s another bumper bulletin covering the usual mix of payroll and expenses taxes, VAT, customs and duties, and international news.

Last weekend we updated our Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme guide. Along with the Government's welcomed annoucement that the scheme would be extended until the end of June, HMRC have issued updated guidance, which has now been split between two pages - one concentrates on eligibility, etc and the other concentrates on how to calculate grants.  There is also a HMRC booklet on how to calculate the grant and make the claims. There’s more summary information on the website here, and all the changes/updates/examples are now included in the BUFDG guide.

Thanks to Damian Shirley at Cooper Parry who has received a clarification from HMRC that; if you defer a payment on account between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020, but the balancing payment is outside of these dates, the amount you must pay is the balancing payment less any deferred payments. Deferring payments therefore will be “deemed” paid for the purposes of the balancing payment. HMRC has also updated its guidance regarding deferral of VAT here.

PROCUREMENT

Ashley has published a second part to the April HEPA Digest, with four new articles.

Following on from the first HEPA ‘time to talk’ session covering PPN 02/20 and the second session covering construction contracts, we are pleased to announce the third webinar in our series which will cover furlough. It will be held at 10am on Monday 4 May 2020, and will once again be conducted via Microsoft Teams. It is open freely to all HEPA, BUFDG and AUDE members who wish to join.

Electronics Watch have launched a series of resources for buyers, updating them on the impact of covid-19 on workers and labour rights from Electronics Watch monitors around the world. These include updates from Malaysia and China as well as advice and guidance from Electronics Watch and affiliated organisations.

COUNTER-FRAUD

WPM’s tuition fee fraud summit took place last week. You can watch videos of the key sessions via the WPM website here. They range from general overviews of fraud risk in the sector, to AML and specific tuition fee and credit card fraud risks. In addition, WPM have created guidance for organisations processing payments safely at home. For any queries, please contact Rachel. 

Sadly the Centre for Counter Fraud Studies (CCFS) at Portsmouth Uni had to cancel its 2020 Annual Conference this year. In the absence of the conference, it’s created a website with some of the best talks from past conferences, which can be viewed here. There’s also now a CCFS youtube channel – these really is a new era – with further videos, as well as broader counter-fraud guidance for professionals.

GENERAL

Our essential reading recommendation this week is a report written by London Economics for UCU. You may well have read articles on the BBC or other major news sites over the last 10 days that commented on it. It is a well-written report and highlights what many have been saying for a while - that the notion of a single “HE sector” in which all institutions should be treated the same, is misguided. Nick Hillman at HEPI has also commented on the report. Coverage extended to the major piece in the Financial Times.

Over the last month we’ve publicised a number of different (but all very good) COVID-19 hubs and resources pages. The Grant Thornton hub is another such one-stop shop. We hope you find it helpful.

The Knowledge Partnership (KTP) is running a webinar on best practice in setting fees in universities. It argues that many institutions are not optimising their fees. Click for more information. 

UUK and Million+ have added more detail to the initial policy proposal for how the HE sector could train and support key workers. The press release is here, with a bit of early analysis on Wonkhe.

Wonkhe also has a number of other very interesting articles this week, including on how universities might transition to the ‘new normal’, what we need to keep hold of, and what we might lose along the way. Worth a read for anyone involved in strategy/planning.

Our highlighted job is for a Chief Financial Officer at Richmond University, London.