John Barratt - Professional Support

- ICPA

- Professional Support -

What is the Federation of Taxation Assistants?

The FTA is the association that regulates professional tax advisors. Applications for membership are carefully checked and referenced before acceptance. Members receive continuing training from the Federation's own tax specialists. The FTA regulates the activities of members, ensuring they reach the required standards of competence, accuracy and confidentiality and also practices regular scrutiny to ensure that all members maintain these high standards

When you choose an Associate or Fellow of the FTA to assist in the preparation of your tax return you can be confident that they comply with the exacting standards demanded by the Federation and comply with its rigorous Code of Practice. Clients of members of the Federation benefit from professional indemnity insurance carried by Associates and Fellows that is a condition of membership. The Federation regulates the activities of all Associates and Fellows and therefore encourages members to give proper standards of service to taxpayers.

ICPA [www.icpa.org.uk]

The ICPA was set up by a group practising accountants, unhappy with the level of representation for the non CCAB accountants. We were unhappy that Government bodies never consulted with us.

We discovered that the CCAB bodies represent about 20,000 firms of accountants out of a total 64,000 practising firms (source: DTI). So who is representing the majority - nobody.

To this end we have set up the ICPA which has enjoyed steady growth within the profession.

Our innovative approach is welcomed by the professional community and we are getting the best value for our members as can be seen by the benefits that we provide. The result has been to provide a highly professional level of support to our members, ensuring that they, in turn, can provide the best, most professional, support to their clients.

Software

I have reciprocal arrangements with software houses for support and sales which means that I can offer the best in service as well as providing a range of specialist software to my clients at reduced rates

Apart from the professional software I use personally, I also have arrangements with two major software houses namely:

TAS Accounting Software [www.tassoftware.com]

TAS Books 1 - designed for the small business whose transactions are cash rather than credit
TAS Books 2 - a more in-depth package which handles credit more easily
TAS Books 3 - a fully functional package to handle all the requirements of a financial controller
TAS Payroll - able to be fully integrated with the other products in the range

Simply Books [www.simplybooks.net]
this package is ideally suited to the sole trader who does not need to worry about double entry and other such complications but just needs to keep a record of his affairs and deal with matters like VAT without hassle

Due to the arrangements I have with these companies I am in a position to offer support in most areas to my clients who need to use the above packages