Philip Fisher

United Kingdom

London Editor at British Theatre Guide

Columnist at AccountingWEB

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Articles

A global success story under threat

1 week ago | britishtheatreguide.info | Philip Fisher

Depending upon your optimism quotient, describing UK Theatre as a global success story is great news, but reporting that it is under threat must be deeply worrying. These are the messages being propagated by The Society of London Theatre (SOLT) and UK Theatre in what they justifiably describe as “a landmark report”.
Footballers dispute penalties for failed tax schemes

1 week ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Philip Fisher

Some readers may have spotted an unusual tax-related story in the media last week. A group of former players have exchanged the football field for a trip to Parliament. The likes of Andy Cole, Michael Thomas and Danny Murphy were attending the high-profile launch of a newish all-party Parliamentary group, The Investment Fraud and Fairer Financial Services Committee. The past footballers’ beef was about what has been described as “financial grooming” of Premier League stars.
Penalty of £1m for liquidated umbrella company

2 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Philip Fisher

First tier tribunal cases can often seem relatively trivial but nobody could accuse the dispute between HMRC and Industria Umbrella Ltd (in liquidation) of falling into that category, since the hearing documents consisted of 624 pages and the authorities documents, 775 more. Even so, the scheduled four-day appeal in March was eventually decided by Judge Natsai Manyarara without a hearing, which may have saved considerable pain to all concerned but still resulted in a lengthy decision.
Theatre feature: ACE Fights Back

2 weeks ago | britishtheatreguide.info | Philip Fisher

Arts Council England has found itself between a government rock and an arts hard place, struggling to survive in its current form. From the point of view of potential beneficiaries, drastic funding cuts and questionable decisions, often influenced by political considerations rather than artistic excellence, have drawn widespread opprobrium.
HMRC lets rich pickings from the wealthy slide

2 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Philip Fisher

We are currently in the season of governmental reports on HMRC performance, few of which offer praise or confirmation that all is well with our taxing authority. The latest, issued on 16 May, comes from the National Audit Office (NAO) and focuses on HMRC’s efforts to maximise the tax-take from the wealthy. Its definition of affluence may cause pause for thought, since the bar sits at earnings of more than £200,000 per annum or assets of £2m.
Audition from Fern Press

2 weeks ago | britishtheatreguide.info | Philip Fisher

The uninitiated often find it difficult to comprehend the struggles faced by actors as they tried to find their character and then maintain peak performance through a long run. Katie Kitamura’s short but immaculately wrought novel takes us into the mind of an unnamed, 49-year-old leading actress as she goes through this process.
Theatre feature: The Next Act

3 weeks ago | britishtheatreguide.info | Philip Fisher

This week saw the launch of The Next Act, an exciting new venture attempting to expand the reach of South Asian playwrights in the United Kingdom. Gone are the days when new plays written by someone of South Asian heritage were so few and far between that any arrival such as Ayub Khan-Din’s East is East became a major news story. One indication of how far we have come is the recent appointment of Indhu Rubasingham as the Director of our National Theatre.
HMRC isn’t perfect but it knows how to win a case

3 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Philip Fisher

There are a lot of issues with HMRC as AccountingWEB so often feels obliged to report. It is massively underfunded, gets far too little support from the government and has let many of its prime assets – experienced officers with expert skills – leave for high-paid jobs with what is effectively the opposition ie members of our own profession. The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee is frequently critical and now suggests that artificial intelligence (AI) may be the answer.
PAC slams HMRC as ‘a lumbering dinosaur’

4 weeks ago | accountingweb.co.uk | Philip Fisher

One day, the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will heap praise on His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs for introducing service improvements that benefit “customers”. Unfortunately, that day appears to recede further and further into the distance with every PAC report.
How to break box office records

4 weeks ago | britishtheatreguide.info | Philip Fisher

For reasons long lost in the mists of time, Broadway theatres have always been far more open than their West End counterparts when it comes to declaring audience numbers and the revenues that they generate. With inflation bouncing around at an unhealthy level, it must be expected that there will be regular announcements of broken records. Even so, the latest is quite something. Last week, Good Night, and Good Luck “shatters all box office records with gross of $4,003,481.50”.