Other news

Put the cat out!

The existing voluntary CAT (reasonable charges, easy access, fair terms) standard will be discontinued for the marketing and sale of individual savings account (ISA) products, following the introduction of the stakeholder suite of savings and investment products on 6 April 2005.

Providers will no longer be able to market ISA products using the CAT standard after 6 April 2005. CAT standard mortgages are unaffected by these changes.

The stakeholder product suite will include three types of savings vehicle as follows:

The stakeholder child trust fund will also be available within the suite. ISA versions of the stakeholder cash deposit account and the stakeholder medium term investment product will also be available.

The stakeholder cash deposit account will offer many of the same features as the CAT standard cash ISA. It will have to offer an interest rate no less than Bank of England base rate minus 1% (rather than minus 2% under CAT standards), while it could also offer the same tax advantages as the CAT ISA.

The stakeholder medium term investment product will provide risk controls as well as having charges capped at 1.5% for ten years followed by 1% thereafter.

(HM Treasury press release dated 24 November 2004.)

dCoding tax and law

A new website called www.dCode.co.uk has been launched to bring tax and law together. It is run by accountant Gary Mackley-Smith, formerly of Butterworths Tolley and TaxZone, and lawyer Rebecca Seeley Harris, formerly of LawZone and Seeley Solutions.

The website provides updates, articles and resources for business tax and law issues, and users can sign up to receive a free weekly bulletin, dBrief, to keep them up to date.

Some well-known contributors to the site include John Newth, Matthew Hutton, Anne Fairpo and Nicki Ross Martin, as well as Gary and Rebecca themselves.

Gary told Taxation: 'I have long recognised that lawyers and accountants have to work together in resolving client issues. So there is no point just looking at tax or legal issues in isolation. dCode looks at the two together'.

Rebecca and Gary also undertake legal research for clients at a fixed price and for an agreed time period.

Editorial Board

When I arrived as a new editor back in August, it was a great relief to find that I had an experienced and enthusiastic Editorial Board of leading tax practitioners who would help me by acting as a forum for discussion about the magazine, and by being available individually on the telephone or by email to discuss particular articles or topics.

Because of the change of editor, the Board has only met twice this year, rather than its normal three times — once under Malcolm Gunn and once a couple of months into my editorship. We have said goodbye to two long-standing members of the Board who are no longer in full-time practice, John Jeffrey-Cook and Ralph Ray. Both of them have been firm supporters of the magazine over many years, and it was sad to see them leave, but I am sure that leaving the Board will not mean ending their long association with the magazine.

We have gained one new member — Mike Thexton, well-known as a lecturer and writer.

We have also recently seen one member of the Board, Robert Maas, receive lifetime membership of the ICAEW's Tax Faculty, announced at last month's Hardman lecture. Our congratulations go to him for this signal, but richly deserved, recognition.

The current members of the Board are:

Robert Jamieson, Francesca Lagerberg, Simon McKie, Robert Maas, Anne Redston, Kevin Slevin, Michael Stern, John Tallon QC, Mike Thexton and Peter Vaines.

Mike Truman.

The editor and everyone at Taxation wish you a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

The next issue of Taxation will be published on 6 January 2005.

Issue: 3988 / Categories: