Mazars upbeat on M&A activity after busy 2014

THE Birmingham office of accountants Mazars is forecasting a stream of M&A deals despite the uncertainty associated with a General Election.
 
It follows a very active 2014 with the international accountancy firm’s central region team, covering the Birmingham, Nottingham, Leicester and Milton Keynes offices, working on more than 30 completed transactions.
 
Corporate finance partner Nick Johnson said: “Despite a degree of macro-economic uncertainty, and the upcoming election, we are confident that this will be another exciting year for deals. 
 
“We have seen views developing within the business community for some time now – whether it’s selling, acquiring or investing. There has been a sea change in attitudes, with people recognising that there is no time like the present.

“So the outlook is very positive – our pipeline of deals remains strong and continues to build.”

EY Foundation launches Smart Futures in Birmingham

YEAR 12s in Birmingham are being offered a Smart Future by the EY Foundation this summer starting with three weeks of paid business work experience.

It is part of a national programme to increase the employment prospects of young people in the city.
 
Around 113,000 young people aged 16-24 in the West Midlands are not in education, employment or training, among one of the highest proportions in the country.

Programmes like Smart Futures, which comes to Birmingham for the first time this year, are designed to connect young people disadvantaged in the labour market with local employers, so that they get the right experience and skills to secure a professional job post A- levels.
 
The ten-month initiative kicks off with three weeks of paid work experience at EY’s Colmore Square offices in July.

Thursfields invests more than £1m with new IT provider

THURSFIELDS Solicitors, which employs more than 100 staff in four offices across Worcestershire, has selected Halesowen-based technology and ICT provide, EBC Group as its new IT partner.

It will provide a fully managed cloud computing and disaster recovery solution as well as new enhanced connectivity across the law firm’s offices.

Nick O’Hara, managing director at Thursfields, said ‘We have made this significant investment of over £1m in order to transform and improve our IT infrastructure and internet connectivity.

“EBC Group provides us with a high level of support which ensures the security and reliability of our IT systems, which is key for us achieving our future growth and success.”

Mike Bridges, divisional head of IT at EBC Group, said: “We provided Thursfields with an all-encompassing solution which involved the re-design and deployment of a simple, yet robust platform for the business to expand with.”

Check your tax codes, warns Murphy Salisbury

STRATFORD-upon-Avon-based accountancy firm Murphy Salisbury is warning that up to three million people that have more than one source of income potentially face backdated tax bills of £2,000 per year because of errors made by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
 
Giles Garratt, partner at Murphy Salisbury, said: “Often when people have two sources of income, whether that’s from pensions, PAYE employment or a mixture of the two, there are two tax codes issued by separate HMRC offices because each acts on the information given to them by an employer, pension provider or the taxpayer.

“The mistakes are discovered by HMRC years later, leading to unexpected tax demands.”