It is quite common to invoice a customer with terms of “30 days or net monthly account”. Small customers will be expected to pay within 30 days, while large customers will be expected to pay at the end of the month following the month of the invoice, so an invoice sent in March 2017 would be settled by 30 April 2017. Large companies do it this way because they may receive several invoices from a supplier, and will want to settle all of them with one payment when they do their computerised cheque run. It would therefore be a good idea for the supplier to have sent a statement at the start of April listing all outstanding invoices. Typically the cheque run would be about the 25th of April. If you give credit and have debts to collect, then you might like to have a discussion with us. Most accountants are also general business advisors as well.

 
The Government is likely to meet a new legal challenge, this time over membership of the European Economic Area. The challenge is something to be welcomed on two points.

Firstly the 2016 Referendum was essentially about sovereignty. A majority of 52% have decided what we knew anyway, that the British Parliament is sovereign, and that no British Parliament can bind its successor. This leaves Parliament free to enter into any number of international agreements, and the EEA is one such agreement to the extent that it does not attenuate sovereignty. EEA membership is therefore a matter for Parliament.

Secondly let’s just waste time with lots of litigation. It gives the Government an excuse to procrastinate, and time is likely to be on our side. While the value of the pound remains artificially depressed, it is European exporters to us who will be struggling. Eventually they will see sense, and it will become easier to negotiate.

What we will have in the long run after Brexit is a 1:1 correspondence between currency zone and political zone. Everybody should find that their zone is much easier to manage. Let’s wish the other zone the best of luck and stop threatening each other. There are any number of things on which we can co-operate, which is always a matter for Parliament.

 
The Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, tells us that Brexit risks are now lower. He also tells us that other European countries may lose more than us from a hard Brexit.

Well, Mr Carney doesn’t have to be believed, but it is an obvious question to ask how much bargaining power do we really have? Europe sells more to us than we do to them, and it is normally the seller who needs to make the adjustments in the event of any dispute, the customer being always right. Of course, European politicians may well just shoot themselves in the foot for the sake of ideology, but maybe Theresa May’s apparent procrastination over Brexit is after all very clever. Maybe all those court cases in the offing, which threaten to delay matters, are being started by friends of the British Government, just looking at matters objectively. It would be nice to know.

 
Construction Industry Scheme returns for the period from 6 December 2016 to 5 January 2017 should be submitted online by 19 January. This includes NIL returns.

It is too easy to forget the need to submit a NIL return when no payments to subcontractors have been made. If you engage a firm of local accountants to do your CIS returns, then this will be taken care of. In our case we keep a diary and do a batch of work at about the same time each month.

 
A new design of pound coin is to be issued from 28 March this year. This will be twelve-sided like the old threepenny bit, although a smaller silver version will not be issued as well (there was once a small silver threepence coin which still appears in Maundy money and is still therefore legal tender for three new pence). The new coin will have a number of features to make it harder for forgers to copy it. It will be interesting to see what happens to these features when the coin becomes worn. Nickel-brass coins tend to wear quickly, and frankly they look horrible when they do become worn.

The existing round pound coin will be demonetised from 16 October 2017. You won’t be able to use it to go shopping after that date, or in slot machines. Many banks will probably still allow you to pay in the old pound after that date, on past experience, but it may be best to take no chances.

A new 50p coin featuring Sir Isaac Newton will also appear. Sir Isaac was Warden and then Master of the Royal Mint, and supervised the great recoinage of 1696. Prior to 1662, coins were hammered out by hand. After 1662 they were produced by machines, also called mills. In the 1690s a push was made to replace all the old hammered coins in circulation by the new milled coinage, which Sir Isaac was responsible for supervising. He is remembered with affection by accountants. This is the same person who is commemorated in Newton’s Laws in dynamics, Newton’s Rings in optics, and has a unit of force named after him.

 
The Government has announced a new garden village to be built in the St Cuthberts area to the south of Carlisle. The News and Star reports that this will be between M6 junction 42 (Carlisle South) and the A595 (the road to Workington and Whitehaven).

So just where is this? My 1:25000 Ordnance Survey Map shows the St Cuthbert Without Civil Parish as lying to the south of Carlisle, and a search on Google Maps shows that it includes the villages of Durdar, Brisco, Burthwaite and Wreay. Narrowing things down, we can say somewhere west of the M6, east of the River Caldew and in the countryside to the south of Carlisle.

One benefit of this might be a decent Southern Bypass Road for Carlisle. Another benefit for us accountants is likely to be more clients, so why complain?  Well Carlisle has plenty of space to grow, but it depends on how you feel about this. I often whinge about the cart track that links us to Newcastle upon Tyne, but my family reply by saying what it is like down the South of England.

 
Value Added Tax returns for the quarter ended 31 October 2016 are due to be submitted by 7 December 2016, and any payment which is due should be made electronically by the same date.

 
Late Night Shopping in Carlisle will start on Thursday 17 November 2016 and continue each Thursday until 22 December. Christmas Lights will be switched on in Carlisle City Centre in an event between 1.00 and 5.30 pm on Sunday 20 November 2016.

 
May we congratulate Mr Trump, the well-known property magnate and golf-course owner, whom we understand has done rather well for himself in the colonies.

 
What is the difference in meaning between a referendum and a plebiscite? Around the world these terms can be used interchangeably, or they may have specific meanings. In another country which began with English Common Law, namely Australia, a referendum is binding but a plebiscite is not. It is suggested that this usage be adopted here in the UK.

The Alternative Vote Referendum held in 2011 was indeed a referendum under this terminology. Had there been a “Yes” vote, then section 9 of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 would have come into effect at once, without further reference to Parliament. The vote on the European Union held this year was simply a plebiscite. There is nothing resembling section 9 in the Referendum Act 2015, which of course should have been titled the Plebiscite Act 2015 to make it clear.

This may be incompetent draughting. Such draughting does happen if we recall rubbish like non-corporate distribution tax. However, this cannot be remedied by use of the Royal Prerogative. It is up to Parliament to sort it out. Had Parliament intended the use of royal powers, it would have specified something like section 9 in the 2015 Act, presumably with an authority to make an Order in Council.