22 January 2014
    
IN THIS ISSUE
Quintas Quarterly Newsletter
Introduction
Consolidated Companies Bill – Big Changes On The Way
Personal Insolvency
Your Business and Cyber-Crime
Quarterly Economic Review
JobsPlus Employment Incentive
Recent News
    
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Quintas Quarterly Newsletter
Introduction
by Tim McCarthy, Partner
 

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the first Quintas newsletter of 2014.  A New Year and a new start for us all. 

Personally I’m not one for setting New Year Resolutions, I prefer to take a balanced approach instead of the ‘sprint’ which is so popular by most in January.  My ethos in that regard would also apply to business planning.  It is of the utmost importance for every business to set out its goals and objectives for the year ahead to include milestone targets along the way to make sure those goals are achievable.  If you’ve yet to outline these plans for your business do so now before the month is out. 


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Consolidated Companies Bill – Big Changes On The Way
by Eugene O'Callaghan, Partner
 

The Consolidated Companies Bill (or Companies Bill 2012) is a long time coming, and understandably so.  It currently stands at 1,429 sections and is the largest substantive Bill in the history of the state.  Not only is it consolidating all of the Companies Acts to date, it is overhauling, restructuring and reforming our company legislation.

It was presented to the Dail on 13th December 2012 and is currently at Committee Stage, with at least 6 more stages to go including Seanad and at least one more Committee.  Progress for this large piece of legislation has been slow, but at the end of it all, on its enactment, what will it mean for corporate life in Ireland, particularly the SME sector?

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Personal Insolvency
Can the New Personal Insolvency legislation be a safety net for those in debt?
by Mark Ryan, PIP
 

Since the economic collapse in 2008 a lot of people have found themselves living under the burden of unsustainable debt. A debate has raged over the last number of years on the lack of a ‘safety net’ for those individuals who for one reason or another have found themselves in the position that they cannot repay their debt as they fall due.

As well as dealing with the pressure being applied by their creditors there is also the stigma of the term bankruptcy or insolvency. Our attitude to debt is the complete opposite of America and the UK where there is a more pragmatic approach to insolvency and bankruptcy.  I attended a seminar recently given by a UK Insolvency Practitioner who compared our current personal insolvency/bankruptcy systems to what was 1st introduced in the UK 20 years ago.


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Your Business and Cyber-Crime
by William Hogan, Partner
 

Cyber-crime is something that we are all aware of. While it may not have happened to us, we may have heard of someone that it has affected.

So what exactly is cyber-crime? Cyber-crime refers to a crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer and the network in most cases would be controlled by a third party to gain access to your data. In some cases that network may be used to direct further malware* to other networks. It is estimated that cyber-crime costs the Irish Economy 3% of turnover annually. This may be best illustrated with examples:


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Quarterly Economic Review
2014 - Towards a Brighter Outlook
by James McCarthy, Investment Analyst
 

At the end of December the outlook for the global economy appeared to be brighter than anytime in the previous few years, led mainly by growth in countries such as the US, Japan and EU member states. Such economic expansion would have a positive spillover effect for the rest of the world with world GDP is expected to grow between 3.5 per cent to 4 per cent in 2014. If realised, this would be an improvement on the c. 3 per cent growth rate expected in 2013 and the world economy's best performance since 2011. 

 

Half of global output is accounted for by the US, the Eurozone and Japan, meaning any expansion is good news for the global economy as the pick up in global demand boosts exporting nations economies. The US economy continues to strengthen reducing the unemployment rate. For three consecutive months, an average of almost 200,000 net new jobs have been created by employers (however there was a sharp step down in job growth in December) while consumer and business sentiment has been mostly strong. While the recovery in the Eurozone has slackened, importantly the currency bloc has exited recession and as a whole is expected to grow by nearly 1 per cent in 2014. The outlook is nonetheless poor for many of the member states and deflation may be a key concern in 2014 with the possibility of a double dipped recession across the whole currency bloc. Meanwhile, the political leadership in Japan is determined to exit the country’s long problem of deflation with Prime Minister Shinzō Abe's expansionary economic policies, which has acquired the neologism "Abenomics". While data is still not pointing towards any substantive trend, exports are growing rapidly, helped by a weakened currency and inflation is becoming re-established. Across the developed world, politics will again be an important force in 2014 and difficult to predict.


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JobsPlus Employment Incentive
by John O'Sullivan, Accountant
 

JobsPlus is a new employer incentive which encourages and rewards employers who employ jobseekers on the Live Register. This incentive replaced the Revenue Job Assist and Employer Job (PRSI) Exemption Scheme in 1 July 2013. It is designed to encourage employers and businesses to employ people who have been out of work for long periods. Eligible employers who recruit full-time employees on or after 1 July 2013 may apply for the incentive.

The Department of Social Protection will pay the incentive to the employer monthly in arrears over a 2-year period. It will provide 2 levels of regular cash payments:

  • A payment of €7,500 for each person recruited who has been unemployed for more than 12 but less than 24 months,
  • A payment of €10,000 for each person recruited who has been unemployed for more than 24 months

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Recent News
by Sarah O'Neill, Marketing Executive

Quintas Announcements

Paul O'Connell appointed Partner


Quintas is pleased to announce the senior appointment of Paul O’Connell as Partner with the firm.  Paul joined Quintas from AIB in 2001 and since that time has held various positions in the firm before being appointed Finance Director in 2006 to oversee the expansion of Quintas and is now a senior Partner.

Paul has amassed a wealth of experience in the financial services sector with his particular areas of expertise being financial advisory management and recruitment services. Paul is responsible for the overall day to day business management of a number of our clients businesses and leads a team of experienced accountants and payroll specialists who provide a range of outsourced accountancy services in – management accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, VAT returns, banking & cash-flow management. 

He is a graduate of UCC where he obtained a Bachelor of Business Studies in 2000. He is a Qualified Accountant with the Institute of Certified Public Accountants and he holds professional membership of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators and has an Audit Practicing Certificate.


Paul Farrell appointed Business Consultant


Quintas welcomed Paul Farrell to its team in December 2013.  Paul is a qualified accountant and a member of FCMA.  For the past 15 years Paul has been providing financial consultancy services to SMEs operating in various business sectors.  Paul will predominately be working on the implementation of strategic financial management to a number of Quintas clients businesses as well as continuing to provide these services to his existing client base. 

Quintas Staff News

Congrats to Billy Norris who recently got engaged to Catherine Ni Chaomhanaigh.

Quintas supported the Cork Simon Christmas Jumper Day

We were all delighted to get into the Christmas spirit by supporting the Cork Simon Christmas Jumper Day in December and raising some funds for this much deserving charity. 





For information on the charity please click here.

Team Building with Rebel Corporate

Quintas recently participated in a team building day with Rebel Corporate.  To view a video recording of our participation click here.

Quintas sponsor CIT Award

We were proud to sponsor the recent Faculty of Business and Humanities Awards at Cork Institute of Technology - CIT.  Congrats to Marie Foran who was the recipient of the Bachelor of Business (Honours) in Business Administration.


 

Recent Press Coverage

To view recent press coverage please click on read more.

Quintas Blog Posts

To view our recent blog post please click on read more.


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