The Judges’ Panels met last week to whittle down the entries for this year’s STEP Private Client Awards to a shortlist for final consideration. Given that we had a record number of entries (240) from a record number of jurisdictions (21), their task was not easy. Many entrants will, inevitably, be disappointed. For those that… Read More How to win a STEP Private Client Award
Over the last six months, the England and Wales Regional Committee has been involved in some significant changes to policy, education and business planning initiatives. These adjustments have presented both challenges and opportunities and have been received with enthusiasm by our members. The Committee spent time at the beginning of the year providing input to… Read More STEP England & Wales Biannual Statement – June 2014
Last week several STEP members reported receiving suspicious and unsolicited emails from an individual purporting to work in international taxation. What made the spam email particularly unusual was the attention to detail the sender had paid to make it look like legitimate correspondence and the citation of STEP to add credibility to its content. It… Read More If it’s too good to be true, it’s probably just spam
To all Members, STEP has been alerted to an individual who is contacting STEP members unsolicited by e-mail offering services in connection with reclaiming Swiss banking fees. STEP in no way endorses this service and would advise members to treat all such unsolicited offers with extreme caution. STEP is also urgently investigating if there has… Read More Unsolicited e-mail offering
I attended a lively presentation today on the paper Moving Money: International Flows, Taxes, and Money Laundering by Professors Richard Gordon and Andrew P. Morris. They basically argue that the move to more onerous anti-money laundering (AML) procedures and the move to automatic information exchange are both going to significantly increase transaction costs for everyone, legitimate… Read More ‘Moving Money’ – the cost of more onerous AML procedures
When we think of continuing professional development (CPD) often the first things to come to mind are attending lectures or taking formal qualifications. Professionals rarely consider the many small exchanges of information that occur between peers in an office or in coffee breaks, let alone online discussions, as building towards their CPD requirement. Social media… Read More Social media matters: finding quality CPD online
Too busy to read the news in full? Welcome to the wrap-up of the top ten most popular stories in the STEP online Digests throughout May. In case you missed them, here are the top STEP News Digest stories most clicked by our readers. IRS clarifies trust registration procedure: The US tax authorities have definitively… Read More STEP News Digest wrap-up – May’s top stories
STEP is introducing a new look to its qualifications in July this year with the launch of the Qualifications Framework. We will be giving more detail over the coming months in the STEP Journal and other channels, but it might be useful to give some background on the drivers for this change, and the resulting… Read More STEP moves towards a new qualifications structure
Welcome to the wrap-up of the top ten most popular stories in the STEP online Digests throughout April. In case you missed them, here are the top STEP News Digest stories most clicked by our readers. Probate court fees to rocket: The government is going ahead with dramatic increases to court fees. From 22 April the… Read More STEP News Digest wrap-up – April’s top stories
When STEP Members contact me for technical help on using our online services, the advice I provide is often based on the operating system of their computer. Most members are using a recent version of Windows but some are still running Windows XP, which increasingly is going to affect how you access STEP’s online tools.… Read More Are you due for an upgrade?
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