BUFDG Pro – who should use the current tax modules?

Firstly, a quick reminder that our brilliant e-learning subscription, BUFDG Pro, launched on 1 August, and at the time of writing, 140 universities have signed up to it, so the chances are, you’ve got access to some new learning content, right now.

Remember that not only is BUFDG Pro content created specifically with university staff and university issues in mind, it is also tested by university testers before we release it (if you’d like to help us test any modules, either yourself or by arranging appropriate testers at your university, do get in touch with Amanda as we’ve got some testing coming up at the end of September, mid-October and the end of October). For details of the dates and modules we’ll be testing, please see this discussion post.

In terms of what the current BUFDG Pro modules on tax cover and who they are aimed at, we thought a quick summary here might be useful, so you can recommend them to appropriate staff within your university, if it is a BUFDG Pro subscriber.

‘Introducing VAT in HE’ will be helpful to those responsible for dealing with financial transactions in universities, such as budgeting, purchasing or generating income. It provides an overview of how VAT applies specifically in the higher education sector but is not intended to be a fully comprehensive guide. The Intended audience for this module includes:

• Administrative and finance staff based in academic departments who are not VAT experts but have to deal with VAT as part of their role e.g. departmental administrators dealing with budgeting, finance staff raising POs and coding invoices etc.
• Academic staff who need to consider VAT and budgeting as part of their role e.g. budgeting for research grant applications, raising POs etc.
• Central finance staff who are not VAT experts but have to deal with VAT on transactions, such as Accounts Receivable staff raising invoices, and Accounts Payable staff processing invoices
• Any tax specialists in universities who wish to have a refresher of some of the basics of HE VAT.

‘Intro to Corporation Tax in HE’ provides an introduction to corporation tax and the core concept of charitable status which underpins all the corporation tax exemptions for universities. It helps to explain the potential corporation tax costs and obligations for universities and then finally the concept of non-charitable expenditure. The intended audience for these three mini-modules (1: Charitable Status; 2: The Exemptions; and 3: Non-charitable expenditure) is members of a university’s accounting team responsible for preparing tax returns or making tax decisions.

More details about the course objectives and topics can be found in the tax section of our website.

We’re in the process of creating three new modules on VAT (covering VAT on purchases, VAT on income, and VAT reliefs), largely aimed at those in universities who are not tax experts but who have to code purchases and income for VAT.  These should be ready for launch in December. As mentioned above, anyone who can assist with testing these modules can find the details in this discussion board post. We’re also starting work on some employment tax/payroll based modules which will be ready for the roll-out of the 2020-21 BUFDG Pro modules, and testers for these will be requested in due course.