The Coalition Government has announced a delay to the introduction of the new Vetting and Barring Scheme in its current format. Registrations for new employees were expected to start from July 2010. Following a forthcoming review it is expected there will be big changes to scale back the scheme.

In the meantime, all previously introduced requirements of the scheme 
remain in place. 

Here is a link to the Independant Safeguarding Authority website where you can read their latest news.

Companies House has now published all the current Companies Act (2006) forms online.

Here is a link to the Companies House website where you can access the the current forms.

The Charity Commission has recently produced an informative set of "Questions and Answers" on the process of incorporating an existing Charity as a Company.

Here is a link to the Charity Commission website where you can view the relevant information.

The final agreement has been reached for the NJC salary increases for 2009-10. This generally has been agreed as a 1% for the year (some low scales 1.25%).

The pay award is backdated to April 2009.

Here is a link to the NAVCA website which has a table you can download with all the relevant information.

CA Plus is proud to announce that 2009 commemorates our Silver Anniversary of providing 25 years of Community Accounting advice and support to groups in the Nottingham and Notts area.

To celebrate, we are organising a Conference "Managing your Organisation", plus holding our AGM. The Conference will have a number of specially invited speakers plus workshop sessions.

Location:   the Gateway Hotel, Nottingham

Dates:  Wednesday, 25th November 2009

Click on the link below to download a flyer and booking form:

Conference Flyer and Booking Form (Word)

There have been some changes to the reporting and accounting regulations which apply to charities (including incorporated charities).

Click here to download a rough guide to the new rules.

The final agreement has been reached for the NJC salary increases for 2008-9. You may recall that an interim inflationary rise of 2.45% was set some months back, but this is now agreed as 2.75% for the year.

You might want to make these adjustments in March, or deal with it all in April.

Here is a link to the NAVCA website which has a table you can download with all the relevant information.

Most of us try to have some reserves for a rainy day, but do you actually know how much you might need? Redundancy is fairly topical at the moment and can be significant. Just out of interest, if our funding dried up, to make all of the CA Plus staff redundant today would cost nearly £45,000. Here is a link to the BERR redundancy calculator which can help you work it out.

This is a bit complicated but might be worth reading if the following applies:

• you are a charity
• your landlord charges you VAT on your rent
• you are NOT vat registered, or you are registered but are unable to recover all your VAT

Basically, a landord can choose whether to charge vat on your rent. If they decide to charge you vat, if you are a charity and you use the premises for a 'relevant charitable purpose', you can serve the landlord a disapplication notice. This means the landlord can't charge you VAT and your costs are then significantly lower.

It may have an implication for the landlord of course, and as with anything to do with VAT it can get complicated, but it could save you a lot of money. We suggest the HMRC advice line is a good place to start - 0845 010 9000.