Accountants “losing clients” as contractors opt for PAYE to avoid IR35 pitfalls
Accountants are saying some of their private sector clients, opting to go PAYE ahead of the IR35 2020 deadline, no longer require their services.
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Our small business problem - and how technology can solve it
It could be argued that the typical small business is founded by someone who is passionate about what they do and working for themselves rather than passionate about building a new Amazon or Apple. They are not motivated to strive for growth, profits or corporate power. They just want to own the business that employs them comfortably. Well OK, 10% are motivated, which is about 550,000 in the UK right now. But how to support them? And if we could where is the budget? And what about the other 5m SMEs that are not driven to increase productivity? How can they be helped to run more ambitious businesses?
Tech Series: An AI programme which does business consultancy for you
Runagood CEO Duncan Collins on how AI has taken over the role of business consultants - and how the role of the accountant will be critical.
How did you come to set up Runagood?
I left corporate life in 1988 to become a business consultant, and I was appointed by the Thatcher government to lead their work on small businesses. The first job was to set up the Training and Enterprise Councils, and the second job was to set up 110 Business Links, which worked out of the Training and Enterprise Councils. Throughout that period, we had quite a large team of consultants, and directly or indirectly we worked with a million businesses, and more than 2,000 consultants whom we had to train. By 2010, the international competitiveness of very small businesses in the UK had risen from 21st to 7th place.