TaxAssist Accountantsare helping OPEN Youth Trust (OPEN) on Bank Plain, Norwich, to explain the world of tax to its young people as part of the charity’s Life Hack workshops.
Robin Johnson who runs TaxAssist Accountants, based on Aylsham Road, Norwich, provides a wide range of accountancy services including tax returns, annual accounts, payroll and bookkeeping and is part of the largest network of accountants offering a wide range of experience and expertise to over 59,000 small businesses right across the UK.
Ally Flatman, OPEN’s Youth Project Officer, explained that the Life Hack sessions prepare young people to find their own way in life – doing the shopping, washing and tidying, budgeting and understanding banking or insurance. “Explaining the basics of tax to a group of teenagers could be exceedingly dull, but TaxAssist make the sessions interactive and interesting, so much so that we tend to lose track of time.”
The sessions include an explanation of PAYE, tax codes, NI, pay slips, payroll, self-assessment, sick pay, maternity and paternity pay, pensions and the difference between PAYE and self-employment.
Robin Johnson, Director of TaxAssist in Norwich said: “Working with these young people keeps me on my toes as they ask far more questions than any of my clients. None of them had any idea about tax so it’s great that OPEN gives them opportunities like this to learn about something that will impact on their working lives so much in the future.”
John Gordon-Saker, CEO of OPEN, is very grateful for TaxAssist’s support and generosity of time: “By bringing in professionals our programmes are given added credibility. Not only have TaxAssist supported our ambition to get every young person who comes through our doors into work, but they have also sponsored our own first apprentice youth worker and I hope they are the first of many Norfolk businesses who will want to help us make a difference to young lives through enlightened social responsibility.”