CEO's welcome: Keeping up to date

It was lovely to see so many of our volunteers present at the event. The evening was a celebration of success and recognition of Council, Branch, committee representatives and all our other volunteers that devote time and expertise to the CIOT and ATT, as well as the tax profession. Seventeen presentations of appreciation were made, and special mentions should be given to Lord Mackinlay of Richborough, who received the CIOT’s Special Certificate, and Molly Eldridge for being the ATT’s 10,000th member. We truly appreciate all the work that our volunteers do and the time they give, and we hope they enjoyed the evening as much as we did.

By the time that you read this welcome, our very first female Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, will have delivered her first Budget. At the time of writing, we didn’t know what was in that Budget, although it is fair to say that there has been more speculation this year than in many of the previous years, with many commentators saying that she had a unique opportunity to make some significant and radical tax changes. Both the CIOT and ATT made pre-Budget representations, and it will be interesting to see how many of those were taken up by the Chancellor. One thing we can be sure of is that our technical teams across ATT, CIOT and LITRG will be reviewing the detail of the Budget announcements, and assessing and considering how these will impact our members and their clients.

Members will know that continuing professional development (CPD) is a mandatory requirement. Maintaining CPD helps to keep your skills and knowledge up to date, giving employers and clients comfort that you are competent in your work. For those seeking to increase their CPD, on 20 November the ATT, in collaboration with the AAT, will present the first of its two Sharpen Your Tax skills events.

This year, ATT Vice President Barry Jefferd and the ATT technical team will provide a topical tax update, together with updates for sole traders and SMEs, and a reminder of where we are with regulating the tax advice market. As always, the sessions will include plenty of practical and interactive examples. You can find out more about the series and register at tinyurl.com/bd6msxzd.

Elsewhere, the Branch Network continues to deliver an in-person and online programme of technical CPD events on a range of diverse subjects. Up and coming events can be viewed at www.tax.org.uk/branch-webinars.

The ATT is delivering four free webinars a year – 721 ATT members signed up to the one on Making Tax Digital last month and the recording is now available on the ATT website for those who were not able to join on the day. The CIOT will also host ‘Building an AI resilient workforce’ on 20 November, which is free to all members (see tinyurl.com/2299whr2).

While helping our members to maintain their technical knowledge through CPD is an important aspect of our work, as educational charities we are always looking at up-to-date and different ways in which we can educate the general public about taxation, and promote tax as a career for students and young adults.

The ATT have started posting videos on TikTok aimed at the Gen Z population (i.e. those born between 1997 and 2012). The first of these has been created by ATT technical officer Emma Rawson and covers the urgent need for changes to the business mileage tax rules. You can watch Emma’s post at www.tiktok.com/@ouratt. You can also read about CIOT’s support of the Gen Z Careers Event on 28 September.

Finally, to the thousands of students sitting our CIOT and ATT examination papers this month, we wish you all the very best, and look forward to welcoming you into membership at some stage in the future.