Opinion

Michael Reid, managing partner at Aberdeen chartered accountancy firm Meston Reid & Co, highlights the need to communicate with HMRC.  There’s been a great deal of talk in recent months around the various options open to any business looking to deal with creditor pressure now that tra

Douglas Roberts, partner at law firm Lindsays, discusses the economic benefits of employee-ownership in Scotland. By 2030, the Scottish Government hopes the country will be home to 500 employee-owned companies. It’s an ambitious target which requires sustained focus, but I’m in no doubt

Cat MacLean, partner and head of dispute resolution at MBM Commercial, explores the judgment issued yesterday morning in Sekers v Clydesdale [2021] CSOH 89. Online fraud has been on the rise for many years. The advent of lockdown and working from home has seen the volume of attacks increase by one t

Alan Meek, partner and head of Morton Fraser's restructuring and insolvency team, discusses the intricacies of limited liability. Limited liability is one of the fundamental concepts in our understanding of company law.

David Alexander, managing director of property firm DJ Alexander, discusses the potential setbacks of introducing rent-controlled areas in Scotland. When an economy is laid low by war, famine, pestilence or – most recently – by a global pandemic, one factor is crucial to eventual recover

James Irving-Lewis of Phil Anderson Financial Services in Aberdeen discusses the COVID-19 insurance myth. With more than 1.8 million confirmed cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) worldwide and fears that 80% of the UK population will fall ill as a result, many people are looking to their insurance provi

Yvonne Evans, senior lecturer in Law at the University of Dundee, author of the Trusts, Trustees and Judicial Factors reissue of the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia and member of the Law Society of Scotland's Trusts and Succession Committee, reflects on the importance of trusts to the Scottish economy,

The post-covid economic recovery in the UK is being channelled towards regional cities, according to Martha Peyton, managing director and head of global applied research at Aegon Asset Management. The long-term structural trends of demographic change and Brexit are having a transformational effect o

Ian McMonagle, chartered tax adviser who sits on the Scottish Committee of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, and taxation director at Russell & Russell, business advisers, warns opportunistic landlords of HMRC's interest in letting property to accommodate delegates at forthcoming COP26 in Gla

Tom Dorner and Stuart Brown, managers of the Aberdeen Standard Investments (ASI) Europe ex UK Equity Income Fund (OEIC), make the case for European Equity Income, assess what is driving the market and discuss the outlook for the sector and recent fund activity. European equity markets continued thei

Andrew Pollard, director of Falkirk-based Ahead Business Consulting, offers practical tips to businesses to avoid cyber attacks. What do Hackney Council, Amex, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, Foxton's Estate Agent, Mersey Rail, Furniture Village and the Salvation Army all have in common? T

Mark Sterritt, UK network director, Scotland at the British Business Bank, discusses the growing appetite for equity finance among Scottish small businesses. It can be a difficult experience for any entrepreneur to sell part of the company they have built over years and decades of hard work. Yet, by

Jack Anderson, financial and professional services consultant at Core Asset Consulting, discusses the importance of transferable skills. Sometimes overlooked, transferrable skills are a key part of your development and career – and often you have far more to showcase in your CV or at an interv

John Rodger, partner and property specialist at accountants Chiene + Tait, discusses the potential consequences of the new Residential Property Developer Tax (RPDT). As the inquiry into the 2017 Grenfell fire continues, so too do financial repercussions from the tragedy which left 72 people dead.

Michael Reid, insolvency practitioner and managing partner Aberdeen-based chartered accountants Meston Reid & Co, puts the spotlight on wrongful trading. When the Insolvency Act 1986 became the principal law applicable to corporate insolvency in April 1986, there was much discussion around secti