Canary Wharf is a redevelopment of East London (West India Docks) docklands, which was once on of the busiest port areas in the world.

1. Should your children be taught taxation?
When you think back to your school days, you might imagine swapping football stickers in the
playground and some boring science lessons, but if the Chartered Institute of Taxation (COIT)
had its way, your children would also receive compulsory lessons in taxation. A good idea to
teach those important financial lessons early, or taking taxation just that bit too seriously? We're
sure that there will be a wide range of opinions on the matter among the clients of our
accountants Richmond here at Freelancer Accounting (http://www.freelanceraccounting.com).
The idea of such lessons, according to the body of chartered advisors, is that they would give
school children a better idea of how tax works, why it is necessary and the obligations that they
will have in their post-school life. The COIT's recommendation came as it expressed its
disappointment at the removal of a specific mention of education on taxes for 5 to 16 year olds
from a new version of the draft national curriculum.
The most recent draft of the curriculum does still mention the teaching of "financial skills", but
clients of our contractor accountants will be interested to read that this was not enough for the
COIT, which described tax as "one of the least understood areas of personal finance" faced by
citizens. The body's president Stephen Coleclough argued that with most schoolchildren
eventually becoming employees, they would need to be able to understand a PAYE coding notice
or payslip, in addition to identifying when it is wrong.
He added, in words that might make many of the clients of our IR35 accountants rue their own
lack of knowledge of certain
taxes prior to becoming self-employed, that many of today's
schoolchildren "will go into business where tax is a key cost and administrative burden that
cannot be ignored. An understanding of taxation - how it works, why it is necessary and what the
obligations of the taxpayer are – is an essential part of financial education."

2. There are various roles that schoolchildren can find themselves playing as adults in relation to
tax. These include students needing to understand the by no means straightforward effect of
PAYE, investors like those with an interest in investing in ISA and tax credit claimants. The
institute therefore emphasized the importance of tax becoming "as familiar a feature of school
education as Bunsen burner experiments and football" - something with which many of those
using accountants for freelancers may feel inclined to agree.
In addition, the COIT drew attention to about a sixth of the 'tax gap' being attributable to error
and carelessness on the part of taxpayers, according to HM Revenue & Customs. It said that
public education could be instrumental in tackling this. This perhaps suggests that if such
teaching ever became a reality, the sons and daughters of those turning to Freelancer Accounting
(http://www.freelanceraccounting.com) for accountancy services could yet be rather better
informed on tax than their often struggling parents. In the meantime, contact us now for more
information on our tax accounting expertise.