Sarah Perrin ACA looks at the key questions being considered in the governance review of the Charity SORP committee and process now under way, including whether the SORP-making process commands confidence

The government is to press ahead with legislation in 2019/20 to allow HMRC to make directors and other persons involved in company tax avoidance, evasion or phoenixism jointly and severally liable for tax liabilities that arise from those activities where the company becomes insolvent, following a consultation on the issues

Nigel Davies, joint chair of the Charities SORP committee, sets out the context of the committee’s goal to both keep the SORP current and further develop charity reporting and accounting to include the concerns of the public

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed plans to extend access to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) to more SMEs, which would see around 210,000 additional UK SMEs eligible to complain to the ombudsman

The Charity Commission has opened a class statutory inquiry into two London-based charities, Future Vision Care and Future Vision Consortium, over concerns that charitable funds may be at risk

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC)’s total expenditure for the year came in under budget, in part because of the amounts it received in costs from a series of high profile investigations into accountancy firms, according to the regulator’s 2017/18 annual report

The Charity Commission has issued a reminder that the deadline for submitting a charity’s 2017 annual return is 31 October if the charity has a 12-month accounting period

As the clamour for audit reform and a second competition review into market concentration of auditors intensifies, Sara White, editor at Accountancy, considers some of the reform options from an auditor appointment quango to a shared open source technology platform

The chief executive of Denmark’s biggest bank has resigned after an internal investigation revealed most of some €200bn (£178bn) of payments moved through its Estonian branch was down to money laundering of cash from Russia, the UK and the British Virgin Islands

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has obtained an urgent High Court order appointing a provisional liquidator in respect of Total Debt Relief Ltd (TDR), to protect its customers’ money, and is also petitioning for the debt management company to be wound-up

The government has published documents setting out its position in the event of a ‘no deal’ Brexit, including information relating to mergers and acquisitions, the future role of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and insolvency

The Charity Commission has published advice on what to consider when starting a charity, including a set of guidelines and requirements, and legal restrictions on an organisation's aims and operations

Tax disputes are escalating among Fortune 500 companies, as the increasing digitisation of activities makes it more difficult to agree on the location and source of corporate value and pose a growing threat to multinationals’ profitability, according to a research study by Baker McKenzie

Complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about potential data breaches have more than doubled since the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into effect, with financial services companies in the firing line for potential large fines, according to research by law firm EMW

The government has unveiled proposals to shake-up the insolvency regime, including hefty fines or disqualifications for directors who dissolve companies to avoid paying workers or pensions, in response to a consultation on corporate governance within companies which are in or are approaching insolvency