Newsletter - Quintas Spring Newsletter

Introduction
by Tim McCarthy

Welcome to our Spring’19 Newsletter.

We have had an exciting start to the year with the firms service expansion, some very interesting and exciting staff news, new graduates joining our team, lots of TY students coming in for their weeks experience and our rebrand program.

With the great professional advice and patience from our very valued client and brand advisor Raven Design we have just completed a six-month project of a refresh of the Quintas brand. This involved introducing new taglines, redeveloping our website and changes to our signage and stationery. Thank you, John and Billie at Raven design, Megan O'Brien and Rob Carpenter at Granite our web designers, Frank Kelly at Lettertec and Kingsign for all the hard work in getting this done.

We have embarked on a monthly client survey in the last number of months. I would like to thank our clients for their timely and honest feedback which helps us provide a better service which is something that we continue to explore and strive for.

We have included a couple of articles on Brexit below. If you are concerned at any stage on how Brexit may impact your business please feel free to contact us and we will assist you set out an action plan.

I hope you enjoy the content of our newsletter and please feel free to contact me at any time.

Regards

Tim

Marriage - Reap the financial benefits!
by Joan Bourke

“Goin' to the chapel and we're gonna get married” – Marriage is more than just a song - Reap the financial benefits!

When the Dixie Cups performed the “Chapel of Love” song and when Bruno Mars performed and co-wrote the song “Marry You”, I think the furthest thing from their mind were the financial benefits of getting married, and rightfully so. You would need to have been raised under a rock to never have heard these songs which exude romance and make hearts melt. However, I do work in an accountancy firm so I will be focusing on the financial benefits of marriage, rather than focusing on butterfly’s, song birds and all that romantic stuff – down with that sort of thing!

Ground-breaking new Employment Legislation
by Sally Turner

The Employment ( Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2018 commenced on the 4^th March 2019. Employers will need to review their employment practices in detail to assess the impact of the new Act on their businesses. The new legislation provides that:

Employers will need to give a written statement within 5 days of a new employee starting work.
‘zero hour’ contracts prohibited (unless there is a genuine requirement for a short-term/casual employee).
Allow employees to request to be put in a ‘band of hours’ that reflects the actual hours worked rather than the contracted hours
Provide a new minimum payment to be paid to employees who are expected to be available for work but not required to work on a certain week or who work less than 25% of their weekly contractual hours in a week.

Tax Tips - Form 46G
by Jennifer Brosnan

The Form 46G is an annual return of information, pertaining to certain payments for services rendered in excess of €6,000 in aggregate per third party in the return period.

Revenue has made it compulsory that the Form 46G is filed annually. Failure to file may lead to delays in obtaining tax clearance confirmation, delays in tax refunds being issued

and in some instances failure to file Form 46G could lead to a Revenue Audit.

Payments to be returned include:

Payments for services rendered in connection with trade, profession, business etc. paid directly by you or paid on your behalf by another in the return period.
Payment for services rendered in connection with the acquisition, formation, development or disposal of a business or trade in the return period.
Periodical or lump sum payments made in respect of any copyright.

Brexit - Proposed VAT and Tax Legislative Changes
by Dave O'Brien

At the time this article was initially drafted the UK were expected to have exited the EU. This was then extended to the 12^th of April if no deal was agreed or the 22^nd of May if a deal could be achieved. In the meantime, Theresa May offered up her resignation, has withstood a party coup and has seen quite a number of indicative votes being lost in parliament. The current talk is that they will request a further, longer extension which would give them time to go to the people and ask for them to vote on the current leave option being proposed by Theresa May. The alternative is a hard Brexit. By the time you are reading this there will undoubtedly by more updates, but I guess the actual position of the British still won’t be any clearer.

Drowning in debt
by Mark Ryan

A Personal Insolvency Practical Guide and Case Study

This would reflect the mood of the people who I have met over the last few years since I became a licensed Personal Insolvency Practitioner (PIP) in August 2013.

It still surprises me that following our meeting they almost always tell me how much better they feel after sharing their problems and how they now understand that there are solutions to dealing with their debts.

This meeting is the first big step on their journey to returning themselves to solvency.

Government Supports for Irish Businesses Affected by Brexit
by John Nolan

As part of the preparations for Brexit the Irish Government have put in place a fund to provide assistance to Irish Businesses that are impacted by the UK's impending exit from the EU.

Although these supports are welcomed it must be advised that there are strict qualifying criteria to avail of these financial supports.

A summary of the Brexit supports would be as follows:

Inheritance & S.72 Life Insurance Policy - How to avoid an inheritance tax bill
by Anne O'Doherty

While topics relating to death and inheritance may not be top priority around most dinner tables, dealing with these issues early is perhaps one of the wisest financial decisions you can make. Financial matters should not even have to be contemplated during times of bereavement and loss.

One of the more important aspects of this is, creating a Will. While the Succession Act ensures that the next of kin will inherit the assets, a Will speeds up this process and makes it as seamless as possible avoiding unnecessary confrontation and disputes. Without a Will, a person dies intestate and certain rules come into play pertaining to the division of their assets. This can be a lengthy and drawn out process.

Quintas Latest News
by Margaret Linehan

St. Patrick's Day in Paris

We would like to congratulate Brendan Crowley on his recent trip to Paris. He was part of the Newcestown Comhaltas who travelled to Paris over the St. Patrick's weekend. The group of over 40 people comprised of 27, 15-18 year olds, parents and teachers who played, danced and sang over the weekend in a number of Paris's famous attractions including the Trocadero gardens beside the Eiffel Tower playing to a group of roller-skaters that roller blade around Paris every month. Simon Coveney and the Irish Ambassador to France were also in attendance. Brendan played in Saint Cloud at one of the hydration stations of an 80km run which was taking place on that day and also in The Explorer Hotel just outside Disneyland where he stayed. The groups main performance was in Disneyland Paris in the Videopolis Theatre where other Irish performances took place throughout the day to celebrate St. Patricks Day.

Staff Announcement

Quintas welcomed a number of new employees in the first quarter of 2019. Welcome to: John Nolan, who joined William Hogan’s team, Jennifer Higgins who joined the Payroll Team and Greg Clifford who joined Patrick Kearney’s team.

Aileen Hegarty and Laura Murphy have also joined Quintas on a 6 month work placement from CIT. Also, over the past number of months Quintas were delighted to work with 13 Transition year students, who got first hand insight into the everyday workings of an Accountant.

Congratulations to Nicola Mullen and Jennifer Kelly

We would like to extend our congratulations to Nicola Mullen and Jennifer Kelly who both passed their final exams with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants of Ireland. Nicola and Jennifer are pictured below being presented with their engraved pens to mark this achievement by Abina Kenneally and Paul O’Connell, Partner’s in Quintas.

The Great Quintas Bake-Off

13 Quintas employees recently donned their bakers hats to provide us with a variety of treats for our Bake Off held in March. Proceeds from the day were recently presented to Breakthrough Cancer Research. Jesse Wiesblatt of Breakthrough Cancer Research is pictured below with members of our social committee. Great fun was had on the day with all entries being tasted and voted on. Congratulations to Margaret on her winning entry. A very successful fundraiser for a great cause.

New Arrivals

Congratulations to Margo Healy and her husband Martin on the recent arrival of their new baby boy.

Careers

For any vacancies please see the career section of our website, please visit www.quintas.ie

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Quintas
Heron House
Blackpool Business Park
Blackpool
Cork
T23 R50R
Ireland

Telephone: +353 21 4641400

Send your stories and feedback to info@quintas.ie - we'd love to hear from you!

© 2019 Quintas. All rights reserved.
Disclaimer: This Newsletter is intended for general information purposes only. The material contained herein includes facts, views, opinions and recommendations which Quintas does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness or timeliness of, nor does it endorse these views, opinions and recommendations. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Quintas and Quintas does not accept any responsibility for any action taken in reliance on the information contained herein.