Posts by Charlie Boy

Contractors welcome Lords inquiry into IR35 before tax reforms hit private sector but fear it's 'too little, too late'

The company you charge might claim it back, but they will probably have to charge it to their customer. In most cases your VAT is finally paid for by the customer/client/mug at the end who is Non VAT registered

Accounting expert told judge Autonomy was wrong not to disclose hardware sales

Re: Hardware on the Accounts

That really doesn't sound right, since when do accounts depts tell sales what they can't sell, unless there's something more to this, like cashflow implications, or dodgey rep of the buyer.

Stupid CEOs

I love this case, it shows so completely why most CEOs should never be allowed to run companies.

As an accountant the key for me here is how big were the Hardware sales, were they small compared to the software sales, and really just add ons, then they should not be separated, or were they big and had nothing to do with the software sales in which case they should be separate. My guess is that in reality they were somewhere between the 2, and probably towards the smaller end given Autonomy was a "software" company. Where things are grey of course Lynch is going to say do it in the way that makes the accounts look best, no CEO of a listed company would do otherwise.

The thing to remember with a company especially is that it really is only worth what people are willing to pay, and given how much HPE were willing to pay that is how much Autonomy was worth, the fact they couldn't realise that worth having paid for it is, in my view, down to their own stupidity. I know they didin't have access to all the accounts of Autonomy, but they did have professional advisors, legal, financial, and accounting I assume, and they should have warned HPE about the risks prior to purchase, added to which the board of HPE should have been professionals knowing what they were doing. The fact that HPE so massively overpaid looks like negligence on their part, and as a result they are now trying to shift the blame away from themselves. They should have acted on their due diligence and walked away if they couldn't get all the information they needed to support the value/risk of the acquisition.

I was always taught the assumption is the mother of all F**K Ups, and clearly even now HPE are making whoppers and guess what, they're still making whopping great F**K Ups.

Boris celebrates taking back control of Brexit Britain's immigration – with unlimited immigration program

Re: Good, good.

"Once a deal with the EU is negotiated and signed it will likely include freedom of movement as part of the deal" not a chance, it is only for members of the EU and that is is the charter. The EU and quite a lot of experts have been saying this from day one. Without being a paying in member we will not get the same FOM rights as we have now. Period.

Ummmm how about the non-EU countries of Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein? I think you'll find they all have freedom of movement within the EU.

Brian Eno's latest composition: A giant Christmas card with Julian Assange on it

Re: FAIL

I think you'll find he is serving the 50weeks he was sentenced to on 19th May. After that sentence is completed next year he maybe held on remand pending extradtion, depending how long the extradition proceedings take.

Personally I think he's an A***hole and should be locked up for that, however I'm not so sure he should be locked up for publishing information that, at least in part, should have been released. For example I believe privacy is a right that should be protected from encroachment including from governments, and we might not have had GDPR (yes I know it's a pain), and more particularly the way our data is shared with the USA.

Autonomy pulled wool over Brit finance panel's eyes, US court told

As an accountant by training, I still can't believe that HP did such bad due diligence checks that they could not find the booking of future income in Autonomys's accounts. It's basic audit checking, and it's very difficult to hide.

Also the FRRP guy would be hostile to Autonomy as they've just made him look stupid/incompetent in not investigating the whistleblower's allegations more thoroughly. He should expect have expected Autonomy to have painted the whistleblower in a bad light, whether it was true or not it shouldn't have affected his investigation.

Google to 'forget me' man: Have you forgotten what you said earlier?

Re: Add spent convictions to the discrimination legislation

"So if I am understanding this correctly: If I was looking for an accountant, I wouldn't or shouldn't be able to see that one of the interviewees had 5 convictions for embezzlement, since the terms had been served?"

Certain convictions even when spent are always searchable with good reason at your local police station., and checking before employing an accountant who has embezelled is one such conviction that they will show you. This is in addition to the provisions of what is shown when an enhanced criminal records check is required.

Julian Assange to UK court: Put an end to my unwarranted Ecuadorean couch-surf

What will really happen

1/ The limitations act 1980 does not apply in criminal cases, the UK has no statute of limitations for crimes.

2/ Failure to Surrender to Bail is a crime in itself , and the tariff is not affected by what happens to the original charges. so the fact that the Swedes have dropped the charges will have no baring.

3/ When he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy, assuming no deals, he would normally be arrested, held in police custody until he can be held on remand in a London prison, until the Failure to Surrender to Bail case can be heard in a UK court. This may take some time, given current funding for UK courts.

4/ Under current guidelines, and given he is guilty, he would probably only be fined, given a suspended sentence, along with probable deportation.

5/ Whilst he is on remand Sweden or the Land of the 'Free' may choose to restart their cases against him and put in a new extradition request.

6/ Given his bail jumping history it is extremely unlikely he will ever be given bail again in the UK, and so will be held on remand at all stages until he leaves the country, either by deportation or extradition.

For those who are interested, below are the current sentencing guidelines for failure to surrender to bail.

https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/publications/item/failure-to-surrender-to-bail-definitive-guideline/

Parliament takes axe to 2nd EU referendum petition

Is it just me?

Brexit is a huge huge decision, and not one that should be taken lightly, With this in mind I think that the first referendum was flawed and should have had rules in place similar to the second referendum petition, so that we don't make a silly decsion on a whim and find ourselves regretting it. These rules should have gone both ways, both Remain and Leave, without these rules whihever way the vote went, if it was close (and it was), you will get those on the losing side crying foul and saying the result was wrong.

What we needed was a result that the losing side would have no choice but accept, unfortunately one this close is not it, so we are left with an angry country more divided than if it had been a landslide.

For the record I voted remain.

UK to stop children looking at online porn. How?

What age and sex is your averager Hacker

Look if my 12 year old boy managed to workout that using google translate on russian porn sites allowed him to bypass the talk talk porn filter and watch all the grumble ficks he wanted (until he got busted), do yo really think age verifcation is going to work at all.

Most kids are more tech savvy than their parents (there maybe a few exceptions on here, but that won't last for long), what idiot thinks that legislating on age verification will have the slightest effect on the porn viewing habits of modern adolescent boys and girls. At best they'll view it as a challenege, at worst they'll start looking at the really dodgy sites that are already illegal (kids, animals & dead people)

The pblic, and politicians n particlar need to learn that this Genie is well and truly out of the bottle, and that blocking it will not work, so they need to look elsewhere for their solutions.

Music lovers move to block Phil Collins' rebirth

Personally I think he's Brilliant

But then I don't have great taste, after all I'm one of the sheep who bought the latest iPhone

Microsoft: Cortana not exclusive to Windows – it loves Android, iOS too

Re: Just too many dependencies

Or just have the night settings set up so that it's silent at night

Origins of SEXUAL INTERCOURSE fished out of SCOTTISH LAKE

Scottish Nationalists

Does this mean that Mr Salmond and his cohorts at the SNP will now claim the Scots invented sex, and that they will demand it be one of the things that is repatriated to Scotland, should England ever gain independence from them.

Huawei 'beats' Apple to bag sapphire smartie bragging rights

Am I missing somethng, but don't Vertu already have a complete range of phones with Saphire Glass including 2 smart phones.

Google ECJ case: No commish, it means we don't need right-to-be-forgotten rewrite

MIssing the point

I happen to agree with the judgement, and feel it's been careful in what it does and doesn't say.

From my understanding, the judgement deliberately only applies to Search engines and not the source, this is so that the original information is not deleted, edited or censored in any way. What the judgement does say is that the search engine can no longer link to the original information, thereby protecting the privacy of the relevant individual.

As compromises go I think this is about the best we can do in terms of having a free uncensored internet and individual privacy.

What really annoys me about the likes of Google and Wikipedia, from their post judgement statements, and their pervious actions, is there belief that they and everyone on the internet has the right to every bit of information about you, and you have no right to privacy. This is wrong, and luckily the ECJ recognises our individual right to privacy.