Update on The ICAEW Investment in Engine B

In October I noted that the ICAEW had invested in Engine B, and that Michael Izza is on the Board.

AccountingWeb have now run with the story:

"The ICAEW’s recent additional investment into tech start-up Engine B was perhaps largely unnoticed by many members. Taking a 10% stake and Michael Izza joining the board seems an unusual step for an institute to take. 

Aside from the potential conflict of interest, historically, accounting institutes and major tech initiatives have largely been a failure. How will this investment stack up?

Getting to grips with Engine B and what it aims to do isn’t easy. The website is quite opaque and subsequent press releases unhelpful, especially as it describes itself as an “intelligent data access platform” using “dynamic knowledge graphs”.

Put more simply, Engine B seems to be two things:

• A set of rules (or data models) that help to standardise structured data (like financial accounts) and unstructured data (such as PDFs). 
• A technology platform, that allows this data to be interrogated and for other software to be linked to it...

While at some point there could be a commercial conflict with other software providers, Lyford-Smith is keen to stress that their interest is at the ‘foundational layer’. He stresses there is no conflict with the audit itself as “this isn’t the standards of the audit, we regulate the professional behaviour, in the same way we don’t regulate Excel formula creation.” 

Tax Investigation Insurance

Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.

You have the peace of mind knowing that your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees will be paid by the insurance without any Excess for you to find.

Tax Investigation Insurance is an insurance policy that will fully reimburse your accountants (your tax return agent) fees up to £100,000 if you are subject to enquiry by or dispute with HMRC.

A Solar Protect policy will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to:

• Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
• Attend any meeting with HMRC
• Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
• Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
• Premiums are Annual Premiums.
• Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT. 
• Premiums and IPT are due in full in advance / at commencement of scheme.
• There is a NIL excess on all policies.

Please click here for details.