GPStone Wrote:No, on all counts. They're the same as you or I or any other kind of commercial company (with charitable status or not). They'll have an overdraft arrangement which right now they'll probably be taking full advantage of. While they have the access to credit provision they are as solvent as all the other companies that are currently having to operate on that basis. Accounts are interesting too. Quite a few of the larger companies/charities got well and truly flummoxed over the last financial year as a result of the new pensions regulations, and those that have sizeable pensions defecits got blown out of the water leading to the appearance of losses, regardless of their overal operating performance. That led to a few big deals falling apart and possibly contributed to some job losses (in a roundabout way) along with everything else, but wasn't something which could be foreseen.
I know relatively little about MoLA or MetroMoLA, but with regard to the way the big charities are set up, it isn't any different to normal non-charitable companies. Rather than being able to get away with something, however, they actually have extra-layers of regulations they have to comply to and which their accountants, their auditors and the charities commision keep track on, as well as having trustees overseeing things and being directly liable to the debts of the company should it trade as insolvent. Its not the charities you have to keep an eye on when it comes to trading and financial misdeeds as they have so much more regulatory tape, hoops and obligations to jump through and would get caught out pretty damn quickly, unless you believe a numerous and expansive range of accountancy professionals and various other professional monitoring types are guilty of simultaneously and independently turning a blind-eye and rich people are willing to put their own money on the line......oh, hang on......
Some of these charities must have incredibly generous banks, ones willing to provide an overdraft in the region of 25%-30% of their entire turnover. The best we could manage was considerably less than 10%. Something doesn't quite add up.
I don't believe the different types of company are the same at all... 80% Business Rates relief, strange rules relating to VAT I can't begin to understand, donations/services that you don't have to charge VAT on...
But hey, we are all supposed to be standing together in this time of woe, not bickering about the complex inequalities that possibly got us into some of this mess in the first place!
PS I also noticed on the MetroMOLA website that they are an IfA RAO (or is RO these days?). Not according to the IfA's website they ain't (although it may not have been updated yet, its that rapid service that you pay your membership for). MOLA(s) are, but they are a separate company with a separate company number and everything... so is it two for the price of one? God I'm feeling positive today!