As I sit down to write this it is the first day of February. The 31st January tax return deadline has come and gone and life will shortly be getting back to normal. January is always an interesting month. We are working to a hard deadline and have to get somewhere between 1500 and 2000 tax returns submitted before the axe falls and the penalty notices start to come out. Luckily I probably have the smallest list of anyone in our offices but everyone puts a lot of effort into making sure our clients don’t get a penalty notice. But, some of you are just so determined, even we cannot prevent it.

So, having worked every day in January Helen and I have for many years always had a short trip away booked in advance, typically mid-February, after all the dust has settled. Something to look forward to and keep us sane in the mayhem of January. We even take time off at the weekends, especially the first weekend in February. That is our time!

Many years ago I came across someone who published interviews with couples who worked together to find out the pros and cons and I suppose, how they managed to avoid divorce. Helen and I have now been working together for something like 36 years and business partners for around 24 years. It seems to work. Don’t ask me why. It just does. But the majority of people I speak to say that there is no way they could ever work with their spouse or partner. Takes all sorts.

I think that one of the best things about January is that you are focused on just one goal for the whole month and nothing can be allowed to get in the way. After all, if all our tax returns were late, the penalties we would have to pay would amount to several hundred thousand pounds, and we would prefer not to have to do that, even if we had the money to do it. One of the worst things about January is that you are focused on just one goal for the whole month and there is little or no room for anything else. I now have a long list of work that I must catch up on for clients who have been very patient with us while we get tax returns out of the way.

We can also start to think about the rest of the year and what lies ahead. We have been working our way through the effects of the Basis Period Reform on sole traders and partnerships. We will continue to see the effects of this for another four years. The next big thing will be MTD for income tax and the introduction of quarterly online reporting to HMRC. That is going to be a real shock to most small businesses, especially if they are not keeping good records on computers. Still, there is a year to go so still time to get ready. Many will be totally unprepared.

Over the next few years, we will see MTD rolled out for larger partnerships and companies, so it is just going to be how tax is done in this country. But this will be as big, if not bigger, than the introduction of Self-Assessment 25 years ago. We’ll all just have to get used to it.

All life is changed. The only constant is change. As technology moves on and as working practices change I know I have to adjust my thinking and the way that I work. Over many years I have had a large heavy laptop. It has a 17” screen and weighs in excess of 3 kilos and that is before you add on the weight of the bag to house it. Carrying it on boats and planes is cumbersome, but I have done it for a long time now. It has been fine. It worked for me. It has a nice big screen making it easier to work. It is my desktop computer in whichever office I am working at the time, although I also have a second plug-in monitor which I leave in each office.  But now, I am travelling more by plane both for personal and business, and I need to be more mobile. I need something easier and lighter to carry. My new laptop has a 14” screen and weighs around 1.4 kg. My priorities have changed. I care more about being mobile than I do about having a nice large screen. All change. But I will have to adapt the way I work in each office.

It’s just what has to happen as my life and technology evolve. And change is frequently good because it makes you question what you do and more importantly, how you do it. It can make you more efficient.

So, the new laptop is home and I can start to explore it and how I am going to use it. I have also bought some full-size keyboards to use in association with it, one of which folds up, so making the whole thing more portable when travelling without a car. It’s going to be an interesting time.

Mind you, starting to work with a new laptop is always trying. Never mind, now that January is out of the way I will have plenty of time!

I am looking forward to the change, but I also know it is going to be a pain for a while. Wish me luck!

Alan E Long

The Long Partnership

07770 738770