My Latest Blogs
18th July 2023
Farming Group Newsletter: Issue 22
Sticks and Carrots – No Change Then Over recent years farmers have been incentivised periodically to change their crop choices. We have had ‘yellow years’ as Oilseed Rape coloured our landscape and ‘blue years’ when Linseed was dominant. I suspect that ‘green years’ may be the next favoured colour and I’m not just thinking of…
18th April 2023
Stephen Malkin becomes Partner
The King’s Lynn office of Whitings LLP has recently seen the promotion of Stephen Malkin to Partner, another example of our firm’s success in developing talent within the Partnership. Although Stephen started his accountancy journey elsewhere he joined us at an early stage in his career and his hard work and an empathy…
13th December 2022
Bureaucracy Rules, OK
In a society already dominated by red tape two new registers have been created to assail us. The Register of Trusts, when announced, did not seem unduly onerous. As the requirements have become clearer we are left pondering where trusts may exist that are not immediately obvious. Of particular relevance to agriculture, land may…
24th November 2022
Farming Group Newsletter: Issue 21
I can remember thinking that accountancy would be a boring career. Over 40-years later I found myself writing the introduction to our newsletter after a budget – aka ‘fiscal statement’ – which incensed the environmental lobby, attracted criticism on the world stage and plunged the pound to record lows against the dollar. Now, it’s…
23rd November 2022
Late VAT Returns: New consequences
As VAT repayment traders, farmers have long enjoyed the privilege of being able to submit their VAT returns late with impunity. Beware. For VAT Returns for periods beginning after 1 January 2023 late submission will have consequences, even for those due a refund. Each late return will attract a point and, for traders submitting quarterly…
6th October 2022
New register of overseas entities: Register UK property now
Adding to the plethora of red tape, there is now a requirement for overseas entities (ie a legal entity, such as a company or other organisation, that has legal personality and is governed by the law of a country or territory outside the UK) who own or lease property or land in the United Kingdom…
1st August 2022
Sugar Beet: Variable or Fixed Price Contracts?
For most of my life sugar beet have represented a stable but unexciting crop. Sugar adjusted yields have seemed reasonably consistent from year to year and the price for which the commodity could be sold has been negotiated by the NFU and British Sugar before growing contracts have been agreed. I have just listened to…
7th December 2021
Sustainable farming incentive
It is premature to shout from the rooftops “The King is dead. Long live the King” but nevertheless the Single Farm Payment regime is in terminal decline and we begin to see the future in the form of the Sustainable Farming Incentive. Following trials this new scheme will be launched in 2022 with a 10…
1st October 2021
Whitings LLP Conversion
We are pleased to announce that we have today incorporated our practice into a limited liability partnership and shortened our business names from Whiting & Partners/Whiting & Partners Ltd to a unified Whitings LLP. As the world and our practice move forward, we have also modernised our branding and created a new group structure: …
30th September 2021
New Environmental Land Management Scheme
As we move towards the end of the Single Farm Payment and the introduction of the Environmental Land Management Scheme the possibilities for the development of a soil carbon market is attracting attention. Standardisation in the measurement of volumes and permanence of carbon sequestered is badly needed but it is reported that some methods suggest…