Much of the accountants compliance work is carried out in the summer months, usually triggered by the end of the fiscal year on 5th April. This year has been no different, with most of the March and April year ends now completed and ‘put to bed’.
However, what is different this year is that the shadow of Brexit and its implications loom large over most clients affairs. To date it appears that the UK government have still to establish their negotiating position (if indeed they actually have one) and even if they manage to do so, they then need to convince the EU of its validity, whilst still holding the Tory Party together. I would suggest this is a very, very difficult trick to pull off and it still appears to me doubtful that it can actually be achieved. It seems odd to me that one party is trusted with / blamed for the negotiations when presumably the 52% of Brexiteers were of all political persuasions.
In the meanwhile business is left to soldier on. Farmers don’t know if they are to lose their SFP after 2022 and since June 2016 the Pound has been on a rollercoaster ride. Quite how any meaningful budgeting can be carried out, save the zero base approach is difficult to imagine.
Not unreasonably, banks are also getting more jittery as they too dislike uncertainty and again, it appears to me that they are taking a more strident approach to overdraft levels and the like.
In short it is a mess. The summer may have come and gone reasonably pleasantly, but I do fear the next 12 months will not be as pleasant economically. It would be a farce for the British economy to implode as a result of an inconceived referendum aimed squarely at a section of the Tory Party.
Only in Britain……….