Reply to: Barclays have f*cked up...help required

[tractor]

Oh yeah?

First let me say how very pleased I was to be asked on the 4th inst. to write an article on why accountancy is not boring. I feel very very strongly that there are many people who may think that accountancy is boring, but they would be wrong, for it is not at all boring, as I hope to show you in this article, which is, as I intimated earlier, a pleasure to write.

I think I can do little worse than begin this article by describing why accountancy is not boring as far as I am concerned, and then, perhaps, go on to a more general discussion of why accountancy as a whole is not boring. As soon as I awake in the morning it is not boring. I get up at 7.16, and my wife Irene, an ex-schoolteacher, gets up shortly afterwards at 7.22. Breakfast is far from boring and soon I am ready to leave the house. Irene, a keen Rotarian, hands me my briefcase and rolled umbrella at 7.53, and I leave the house seconds later. It is a short walk to Sutton station, but by no means a boring one. There is so much to see, including Mr Edgeworth, who also works at Robinson Partners. Mr Edgeworth is an extremely interesting man, and was in Uxbridge during the war.

Then there is a train journey of 2 2 minutes to London Bridge, one of British Rail's main London terminal, where we accountants mingle for a moment with stockbrokers and other accountants from all walks of life. I think that many of the people to whom accountancy appears boring think that all accountants are the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some accountants are chartered, but very many others are certified. I am a certified accountant, as indeed is Mr Edgeworth, whom I told you about earlier.

However, in the next office to mine is a Mr Manners, who is a chartered accountant, and, incidentally, a keen Rotarian. However, Mr Edgeworth and I get on extremely well with Mr Manners, despite the slight prestige superiority of his position. Mr Edgeworth, in fact, gets on with Mr Manners extremely well, and if there are two spaces at lunch it is more than likely he will sit with Mr Manners. So far, as you can see, accoun- tancy is not boring.

During the morning there are a hundred and one things to do. A secretary may pop in with details of an urgent audit. This happened in 1967 and again last year. On the other hand, the phone may ring, or there may be details of a new superannuation scheme to mull over. The time flies by in this not at all boring way, and it is soon ,when there is only 1 hour to go before Mrs Jackson brings round the tea urn.

Mrs Jackson is just one of the many people involved in accountancy who give the lie to those who say it is a boring profession. Even a solicitor or a surveyor would find Mrs Jackson a most interesting person. At 10.00am, having drunk an interesting cup of tea, I put my cup on the tray and then...( 18 pages deleted here - Cojak .) .. and once the light is turned out by Irene, a very keen Rotarian, I am left to think about how extremely un-boring my day has been, being an accountant. Finally may I say how extremely grateful I am to CUK for so generously allowing me so much space.

tl;dr

[tractor]

...

So you could say that if one is benched for say six months - that's not success, it's failure so no divvy....

It could indeed be success, if you planned it that way. Some people only want to work 6 months a year or whatever.

[Sausage Surprise]

Simply pay the money back and put it down as repaying the company for dividends incorrectly paid. There shouldn't be any tax consequence as it sounds like it was a genuine error. So the money paid out should be classified as dividends paid and the money reimbursed back to the company as dividends repaid.

This is correct and how I would resolve it

[Contreras]

Simply pay the money back and put it down as repaying the company for dividends incorrectly paid. There shouldn't be any tax consequence as it sounds like it was a genuine error. So the money paid out should be classified as dividends paid and the money reimbursed back to the company as dividends repaid.

Interesting. So if a company 'accidentally' paid an interim dividend exceeding retained profit at that point in time (but covered by retained profit at year end), would it be OK to leave the dividend declared as paid?

I would assume it necessary to [re-]declare the interim dividend for a smaller amount and treat the excess as a loan to be repaid with a final dividend, but the above answer made me wonder.

[stek]

Loved the post above, its absolutely not boring! I have work to do, but, did you ever use the variances? Not me, ever!

I remember the word - but not what it means! This was 1988 for me. I seem to remember driving back from my exams (failed!!) in Preston I think, Holland - England Euro 88? - on the radio in my Toyota 2.0ST Celica Liftback, Marco Van Basten hattrick, lost 3-1...

You had to pass all four then at once, do you still have to? Otherwise back a step....

And I missed Neil Young at Hammersmith Odeon - or Apollo - which was it then?

[stek]

Right, but I'd still be taking a salary (or directors fee, if you prefer) during that period. Size of the divvy is also going to reflect the profit in my account and my anticipated expenses over the coming months - like the new workstation I needed yesterday goddamnit - not just tax.

Which makes me thing an LLP is a more suitable container for what we do - I had one - or was a member of one and I got burnt, but now I'm thinking more and more it's a better vehicle, if run as a one man or two man enterprise, no divvies, its a sapper around self-employment, I know some agencies are said to baulk but to be honest, most are clueless and as long it's seems like a corporate body, they'll go along.

I'm going to research more about the one or two man LLP - rather than the mega-LLP's controlled by others that were popular and caught me out - managed locally - might be a winner.

I got sth like 78% net to gross - straight into my personal account, I think locally controlled will need more work, but I am on it!

[Sally@InTouch]

Contribution! Marginal Costing, mkvdev and vfcmap on AIX VIO is SSSSOOOOO much more interesting!

Loved the post above, its absolutely not boring! I have work to do, but, did you ever use the variances? Not me, ever!

[jamesbrown]

So you could say that if one is benched for say six months - that's not success, it's failure so no divvy....

Right, but I'd still be taking a salary (or directors fee, if you prefer) during that period. Size of the divvy is also going to reflect the profit in my account and my anticipated expenses over the coming months - like the new workstation I needed yesterday goddamnit - not just tax.

[stek]

Widgets and costing, the BANE of my life! Luckily time heals all wounds, and thank heavens for this industry

Contribution! Marginal Costing, mkvdev and vfcmap on AIX VIO is SSSSOOOOO much more interesting!

[stek]

mmmmm, excuse me, some of us have personality

Oh yeah?

First let me say how very pleased I was to be asked on the 4th inst. to write an article on why accountancy is not boring. I feel very very strongly that there are many people who may think that accountancy is boring, but they would be wrong, for it is not at all boring, as I hope to show you in this article, which is, as I intimated earlier, a pleasure to write.

I think I can do little worse than begin this article by describing why accountancy is not boring as far as I am concerned, and then, perhaps, go on to a more general discussion of why accountancy as a whole is not boring. As soon as I awake in the morning it is not boring. I get up at 7.16, and my wife Irene, an ex-schoolteacher, gets up shortly afterwards at 7.22. Breakfast is far from boring and soon I am ready to leave the house. Irene, a keen Rotarian, hands me my briefcase and rolled umbrella at 7.53, and I leave the house seconds later. It is a short walk to Sutton station, but by no means a boring one. There is so much to see, including Mr Edgeworth, who also works at Robinson Partners. Mr Edgeworth is an extremely interesting man, and was in Uxbridge during the war.

Then there is a train journey of 2 2 minutes to London Bridge, one of British Rail's main London terminal, where we accountants mingle for a moment with stockbrokers and other accountants from all walks of life. I think that many of the people to whom accountancy appears boring think that all accountants are the same. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some accountants are chartered, but very many others are certified. I am a certified accountant, as indeed is Mr Edgeworth, whom I told you about earlier.

However, in the next office to mine is a Mr Manners, who is a chartered accountant, and, incidentally, a keen Rotarian. However, Mr Edgeworth and I get on extremely well with Mr Manners, despite the slight prestige superiority of his position. Mr Edgeworth, in fact, gets on with Mr Manners extremely well, and if there are two spaces at lunch it is more than likely he will sit with Mr Manners. So far, as you can see, accoun- tancy is not boring.

During the morning there are a hundred and one things to do. A secretary may pop in with details of an urgent audit. This happened in 1967 and again last year. On the other hand, the phone may ring, or there may be details of a new superannuation scheme to mull over. The time flies by in this not at all boring way, and it is soon ,when there is only 1 hour to go before Mrs Jackson brings round the tea urn.

Mrs Jackson is just one of the many people involved in accountancy who give the lie to those who say it is a boring profession. Even a solicitor or a surveyor would find Mrs Jackson a most interesting person. At 10.00am, having drunk an interesting cup of tea, I put my cup on the tray and then...( 18 pages deleted here - Cojak .) .. and once the light is turned out by Irene, a very keen Rotarian, I am left to think about how extremely un-boring my day has been, being an accountant. Finally may I say how extremely grateful I am to CUK for so generously allowing me so much space.

[Sally@InTouch]

I was ICMA tho - we didn't do much personal tax or any tax really - but we had to plough through it....!

We did Widgets! Ad infinitum!!

Widgets and costing, the BANE of my life! Luckily time heals all wounds, and thank heavens for this industry

[stek]

mmmmm, excuse me, some of us have personality

I was ICMA tho - we didn't do much personal tax or any tax really - but we had to plough through it....!

We did Widgets! Ad infinitum!!

[stek]

It's partly about perception, of course, and it shouldn't appear like a salary payment. But it also isn't a salary payment because the payment is directly tied to success whereas a salary payment is unconditional (insofar as you are working ).

So you could say that if one is benched for say six months - that's not success, it's failure so no divvy....

[jamesbrown]

When I was trained as an Accountant (yes, I know!!) Dividend was always drummed into me as 'The Reward For Risk' - let's face it - to all of us it's a salary top-up. Risk is negligible.

It's partly about perception, of course, and it shouldn't appear like a salary payment. But it also isn't a salary payment because the payment is directly tied to success whereas a salary payment is unconditional (insofar as you are working ).

[Sally@InTouch]

When I was trained as an Accountant (yes, I know!!)

mmmmm, excuse me, some of us have personality