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Insights

Pulling together opinion, analysis, interviews and features on the profession along with a focus on the key issues affecting accountancy and the world of business.

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Insights special

Prepare for 2026

  • Hub page
Accountants face some significant challenges, but also some key opportunities in 2026. Hear from ICAEW experts on the important issues that members need to be thinking about over the next 12 months.
Browse resources

Latest news

How to take the pain out of advanced Excel functions
  • Article
  • 05 Mar 2026
Ben Ducker, Chartered Accountant, Excel specialist and Founder of Modelling Expert, suggests three hacks to help those with advanced Excel proficiency to work smarter and save time.
Four intermediate Excel functions made easy
  • Article
  • 04 Mar 2026
No matter how long an individual has been using Excel or how confident they might be with the software, there are always new functions to uncover and new ways of working. And sometimes, there are approaches everyone should know.
Spring Forecast: despite optimistic tone, nothing has changed
  • Article
  • 04 Mar 2026
The Chancellor pointed to falling government debt and a slight revising up of forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility as reasons to be more cheerful, but the immediate picture still looks muted.

Latest tax news

Prepare for 2026/27: Companies
  • Article
  • 25 Feb 2026
ICAEW’s Tax Faculty highlights some of the key changes for companies ahead of the start of the new financial year on 1 April 2026, including increased penalties for the late filing of company tax returns.
Suspension of penalties for a one-off tax error
  • Article
  • 25 Feb 2026
ICAEW’s Tax Faculty explains why HMRC may be unlikely to agree to suspend a penalty relating to a one-off error in a tax return and looks ahead to the potential reform of the penalties system.
HMRC webinar: ensuring tax returns are correct and complete
  • Article
  • 24 Feb 2026
In its webinar on 4 March 2026, HMRC will explain the key points from its guidance on ensuring documents filed with HMRC are correct and complete and take questions from attendees.

Insights specials

A listing of one-off Insights specials that focus on a particular subject, interviewing the key people, identifying developing trends and examining the underlying issues.

Prepare for 2026
  • Hub page
Accountants face some significant challenges, but also some key opportunities in 2026. Hear from ICAEW experts on the important issues that members need to be thinking about over the next 12 months.
How to fix VAT
  • Hub page
ICAEW explores the challenges and opportunities offered in reimagining VAT and it's application. Read about the history of VAT, the lessons that can be learned from outside the UK and the potential of digitalisation.
Global Ethics Day
  • Hub page
ICAEW celebrates Global Ethics Day each year. The 2025 theme is "Ethics Re-envisioned,” challenging us to think boldly about how we embed ethical principles into the heart of our organisations.

Accounting Intelligence

ICAEW has created a range of resources to support members in business and practice build their understanding of AI. There are video masterclasses, as well as features discussing opportunities, challenges, limitations, risk management and ethics.

Browse resources Watch AI masterclasses
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Videos

AI masterclass Konrad Bukowski-Kruszyna ACA, Head of Audit Data Analytics, RSM UK outlines how generative AI can help ensure that audit sampling is being handled correctly.
AI masterclass on better audit sampling
  • Video
  • 29 Oct 2024
Konrad Bukowski-Kruszyna ACA, Head of Audit Data Analytics, RSM UK outlines how generative AI can help ensure that audit sampling is being handled correctly.
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What is VAT?
  • Video
  • 19 Nov 2024
Value added tax is a vital tool for raising revenue to fund education, healthcare and more. We explain how it works and how it could be improved.
AI masterclass Jenny Blewett FCA, Head of Finance at Costello Medical talks about how she used generative AI to help check her firm’s banking controls when she was new in post
AI masterclass on reviewing company controls
  • Video
  • 30 Oct 2024
Jenny Blewett FCA, Head of Finance at Costello Medical talks about how she used generative AI to help check her firm's banking controls when she was new in post
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Private equity: is it here to stay?
  • Video
  • 22 May 2024
Matt Meadows, Managing Partner, Moore Kingston Smith, and Caroline Monk, Executive Partner, Beever and Struthers, on their views of private equity on the accountancy sector.

The opinions expressed by external guest speakers in interviews or other publications included on this website are, by their nature, those of the speaker. They are not necessarily fully endorsed by the ICAEW or purport to reflect the official policies and views of the ICAEW or its members.

Podcast episodes

Corporate reporting is changing, MTD on the way
  • Podcast
  • 04 Mar 2026
There’s just one month to go til Making Tax Digital kicks in for Income Tax; we take a look at how the transition will go. There’s also a lot happening in corporate reporting at the moment – Sally Baker brings us up to speed.
MTD Live: are you (and HMRC) ready for MTD?
  • Podcast
  • 03 Mar 2026
In a special episode of The Tax Track, recorded at ICAEW’s MTD Live event on 23 February 2026, we speak to HMRC and practitioners on how they are preparing for Making Tax Digital (MTD) for income tax, which is due to start from April 2026.
How to get to the C-suite
  • Podcast
  • 10 Feb 2026
This episode looks at routes to the C-suite, and the traits, skills and capabilities you’ll need to get you there. Accountants are highly represented in the C-suite, with one in four CEOs holding the qualification according to research by Robert Half.

Charts of the week

Chart of the week: student loans
  • Article
  • 27 Feb 2026
Our chart this week looks at how the Department for Education has impaired 40% of the value of its student loans outstanding as at 31 March 2025.
Chart of the week: Real average pay in the UK
  • Article
  • 20 Feb 2026
Our chart this week illustrates how UK average total pay fell by 0.2% in real terms over the 12 months to December 2025, following much stronger growth in the previous two years.
Chart of the week: business births and deaths in the UK
  • Article
  • 13 Feb 2026
Our chart looks at the cycle of business life since 2017, as the number of business births exceeded business deaths in 2025 for the second year in succession.

Insights by topic

Student Insights
  • Hub page
Interviews, guides and features giving you fresh insights, innovative ideas and an inside look at the lives and careers of ICAEW students and members. No matter what stage you’re at in your journey with us, you’ll find content to suit you.
Insights index
  • Listing
This page provides an entry point to the articles that have formed the daily, monthly and weekly member emails, arranged by section and month. It also contains an index of themed Insights specials and the Quarterly magazine.
Climate hub
  • Hub page
Climate change is a crucial issue for the accounting profession. Are you professionally ready to mitigate the risk and maximise the opportunity of climate change? Find inspiration, information and practical resources to support the goals set out in the Paris Agreement and in the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Diversity and Inclusion
  • Hub page
ICAEW is committed to Diversity and Inclusion. In this hub we bring together timely D&I resources on the protected characteristics of the Equality Act, along with our latest insights into diversity in the profession.
EU and international trade
  • Hub page
A range of resources on the implications of the UK leaving the EU on 31 December 2020.
Regulatory News
  • Listing
A round-up of regulatory and conduct updates and communications from the ICAEW Professional Standards Department.
Sponsored content
  • Listing
Hear what our partners are saying on topical issues impacting the accountancy profession.
Insights archive
  • Listing
In this section you can read some of the best material that was in ICAEW's monthly magazine, Economia, as well as from the Insights section published in 2020.