Lambert Chapman LLP’s Nick Forsyth remembers “The Hurricane”

It brought a tear to my eye I’ll admit re-watching that frame of snooker between Alex Higgins and Jimmy White where Alex needed to win to stay in the semi final. Magical and breathtaking. We all said at the time Jimmy’s young he’ll win it loads of times but it hasn’t happened. But Alex was in sensational form and won the second of his two world championships.

I’m referring to the BBC tribute to Alex Higgins that was shown last week. Most of the big names in snooker were on it talking about how the boy from Belfast made good. And boy did he make good until it all got too much for him and personal problems took over. Jimmy White summed it up when he said he’d fallen out with Alex because he wouldn’t look after himself in the last year of his life and that sums up the Hurricane doing what he wanted and sod the consequences.

In those days snooker had characters and none greater than Alex. When he was on you didn’t leave the room. Even better your parents didn’t approve of him like they didn’t our favourite tennis players come Wimbledon, Nastase then Connors then McEnroe, people with a bit of colour to shake up the establishment a little.

 I don’t watch snooker these days and wouldn’t know many of the players. But when it was first popular on the television we’d all be tuning in to watch our personal favourites. A sad end he may have had but he had his time in the spotlight and we should be grateful we were able to see him play.

Thanks Alex.

Lambert Chapman LLP’s Nick Forsyth quoted in Accountancy Age article

The UK200Group asked if we would be prepared to comment on newsworthy items and Paul Short and Nick Forsyth agreed that they would participate if the topics were relevant to our work within Lambert Chapman LLP.

This week the group asked if HM Revenue & Customs were delivering on repayments of tax quickly enough following a number of national articles on the subject. Nick was able to provide anecdotal evidence of a number of cases where no matter what chasing  is undertaken repayments have not been forthcoming due to staff at HM Revenue & customs being overwhelmed by their workloads.

If you would like to read the article, which has been published online at Accountancy Age in full please follow the link below.

http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2266871/advisers-agree-nao-concerns

If you have further comment on this subject that you would like us to relay back to HM Revenue & Customs through our Working Together committee membership please comment below.

Lambert Chapman LLP’s Nick Forsyth reviews the Emergency Budget

The speculation surrounding VAT, Capital Gains Tax and the Personal Allowance had highlighted that this budget would include lots of measures in an effort to reduce the deficit. In recent weeks lots of tax providers have been offering schemes to avoid capital gains tax at the new higher rates and some of these will include paying tax now.

Will the individuals signing up be happy with the gamble they took. If it was a business asset the increase of Entrepreneurs Relief from £2 million to £5 million may have caused them consternation. This had only been increased to £2 million in the last budget and we had wondered whether it might go backwards to the previous £1 million. Certainly the increase to 28% for those in higher rates is milder than had been predicted yet sufficient not to deter foreign investors.

I can only think that this is the motivation behind the decrease in corporation tax rates. With a record deficit a reduction in corporation tax was the last thing I expected but the new Government firmly believes that that encouraging business is the most positive measure to encourage investment and create profits.

The Banking levy may prove to be an important measure but it could only work with the cooperation of our major European partners and it is understood that France and Germany will reciprocate and this will ensure its success.

The increase in the VAT rate was not unexpected and I appreciate that it is not something that can be done overnight but surely a 6 month delay allows massive spending at the current rate and risks a fall over the cliff on non essential goods for a period from 4 January 2011. The retailers who will be effected most will undoubtedly welcome the delay and an opportunity of strong pre Christmas sales and some form of war chest.

On top of this the freezing of public sector pay and reduction of benefits as time passes will bring money back into the pot. Will it be successful? Only time will tell but it cannot be any worse than continuing down a well trodden road with apparently no idea at all!