Are the financial sector employees putting longer hours?

Most people employed in tax- jobs in London may find that they are being relied upon to work for longer hours for helping their firms during this time of severity. However, the professionals in the tax jobs and the chartered accountants in London need to ensure that they are not regularly made to work overtime without being sufficiently paid for it.



According to a survey the financial sector professionals are working more then they did before the time of recession. It is not a myth that many works are spending nearly 50 hours each week at their office desk.

However, it has been found that there are deceitful employers out there who would be putting excess pressure on the employees which is unlawful and undue as the cost of job loss is really very expensive. The recent research by the Contact Law showed that there was nearly 15 percent increase in people seeking advice on employment related issues between the months of June and July this year.

Britons, especially chartered accountants in London, employed in financial sectors are in search of new employers where their hard work will be genuinely rewarded.

CFA Pass Rates Plummet, Financial Firms Worried

As the recession and the financial apparatus of the country is slowly stuttering back into life, the demand for more qualified Chartered Financial Analysts, or chartered accountants, is going up. However, in a disappointing pattern, the pass rates for CFA examinations in both first and second levels have plunged.



While 58% of applicants failed to pass the first level of the prestigious examination, only 39% of the ones who had qualified managed to break through to the third part of the examination from the second level.

As the Wall Street is in a pro-hiring mood after cutting almost 350,000 in the last 2 years, a record number of people have applied for the examination and certification - 139,900 to be precise! Apart from the US alone, there were about 16,000 from China and 12,000 from India as well. Applicants from other countries had also applied for the same – and were pretty strong in number too.

However, unlike chartered accountants in London or New Delhi, the CFA candidates have fairly disappointed the experts. With pass percentages dropping to lower figures, it could define either of two things – either the examination was becoming more difficult to crack, or there were too many eager applicants without the necessary training required to pass such tests.

While average applicants take about 4 years to complete the 3-part examination process and invest about 300 hours to do so, it is becoming increasingly evident that one needs to put in much more time and effort if he/she wants to work with the bigwigs of Wall Street.

OR perhaps it is time for a more stringent check on credentials before allowing applications to go through!

UK is Contemplating Tax Reforms Of Late!

With the new David Cameron led Conservative-Liberal Democrat government making umpteen changes to the policies and formats in the British national and international domains, tax reforms were only waiting to happen. And finally it has – with Cameron citing that tax reforms will rejuvenate the economy rather than bludgeon the common taxpayer.



Of the several reforms that have been proposed, one which will be delighting the online and offshore enterprises has to be the hint at cutting taxes on foreign profits in the country. This makes for a huge breather to firms that have had foreign investment or offshore profits within their capital in the post-recession period.

Also, a lot of enterprises that had already been voicing their concerns over the instable tax rates and policies would possibly quiet down. Pension tax credits and annual tax reprieves may also see possible changes, especially with the recession now in the backburner.

As David Cameron, who is showing promises of a brave leader, has vowed that the tax reforms can literally define a new era for the UK businesses. These changes in taxation policies can actually help the British economy rise from the ashes of a recession, which had struck a severe blow into the wheels of progress for the same (albeit with the due help of chartered accountants!).

As for the actual impact of the tax reforms, they can only be concretely measured in 2012 – and any projections before that period are only stones thrown in an economic dark (one which Cameron wished would be lightened up in good measure in the future!).