Dear Reader,

Welcome to our Autumn newsletter.

As usual we are covering a wide variety of topics that I am certain one or more of which will pique your interest, with some of them particularly relevant as we approach budget time and head into pension season. As always we welcome all feedback and are happy to take suggestions as to what topics you might like to see covered in the future.

Internationally it’s a case of more of the same. Trump is testing us to see if we can roll our eyes more than we already can and his Twitter feed proves to be the gift that keeps on giving.  The less said about Rocket Man the better.  Angela Merkel remains in power, but the rising right is a cause for concern. In the meantime, Brexit looms large on the horizon and still no roadmap as to how the UK will get there. Thankfully, the potential impact and related uncertainty does not seem to be slowing down Irish business activity and productivity.

Imagine if Minister Donohoe were Santa, 10^th October was Christmas Day and the rest of us represent the excited young children eagerly looking forward to Christmas. Over the last few weeks we’ve been making our list, we’ve checked it twice and now we’re finally ready to put pen to paper and send our final wish list to Santa ahead of the big day.

During Income Tax Season, one area that is heavily queried by clients is that of PRSI Contributions and eligibility for the state pension. Here, we outline the requirements for both the contributory and non-contributory state pension as per the Department of Social Protection and general information for each;

I’m not a fan of Conor McGregor or MMA, I had never even seen one of his fights, until somehow my sons convinced me to stay up until a time my mother wouldn’t approve of, to watch McGregors recent duel with Floyd Mayweather. I did so out of interest to see what all the fuss was about and while on one level I couldn’t care less if he won or not, the patriot in me was hoping that maybe he would. To be honest I was underwhelmed by the whole thing and ultimately resigned myself to this being yet another “generational thing” between father and sons that I had better accept rather than challenge.

A fight of far greater interest to me as an observer has just kicked off in the past week and arguably there is a money prize of similar proportion on offer. In the Blue Corner are Michael O’Leary and Ryanair, and in the Red Corner the Pilots and IALPA Union (sort of!). The build-up so far has seen the business equivalent of the water bottle throwing and thrash talking of MMA.

I recently read an article confirming that €60 a week was found to be the typical payout a working woman can expect from her pension, which adds up to about €3,000 per annum (p.a)

Including the full State pension of €12,000 p.a, this would bring a woman's income on retirement up to €15,000 p.a. That's less than half the average wage and it would be a challenge for anyone on that sum to make ends meet. Furthermore, many women could face retirement on an income that is well below €15,000 p.a as not everyone qualifies for the full State pension, many women get a lot less from their private pension than €3,000 p.a and hundreds of thousands of women (including those in and out of the workforce) do not have any private pension at all.

Given the unique challenges women face, it comes as no surprise that their pension savings are considerably less than those for males.

You may have noticed your Accountant ageing considerably in the past year or so. The reason for the accelerated greyness, baldness or wrinkled face is the quantum of changes in regulation and compliance in the past 12 to 18 months. It has been relentless and the ultimate irony is that the main source of distress had been the delayed passing of the yet further legislation - The Company (Accounting) Act 2017. There’s been so much to deal with over the past year or so one would think we would welcome a delay in more legislation and ordinarily we would, but this legislation was more crucial than most of what went before it and finally filled a void which has been exercising Accountants for the past year.

Congratulations to Brook Food Services
We would like to congratulate our client Brook Food Services on their win as Ireland's Best Site Contract Caterers at the 2017 Gold Medal Awards which took place recently at Lyrath Estate, Kilkenny.

New Staff
Welcome to our new employees who have joined Quintas. John Kelleher joins our Audit Department and Adam Sheehan & Niall Keating have joined as trainee accountants along with Leon Burke and Alan Fenton who joined us under our 2017 Graduate Programme.

Quintas Staff Outing
Quintas staff enjoyed a trip to Iceland in June



Paul O' Connell
Congratulations to Paul O' Connell, Partner on winning a Jaguar XE car for his Hole-In-One at the Cork Chamber Golf Classic in Cork Golf Club on 7th September.