What do you do?

I’m a Tax Director at CP, but that just sounds boring and is often a conversation killer. Someone once described me as the batman of the tax world which is much more exciting. So, what is that I actually do?

I enjoy working with business owners, understanding what gets them out of bed, why they do what they do, what they want to achieve both with their business & in terms of personal/family wealth and getting under the surface of what might be holding them back in achieving their goals.

Every day for me is different. Tax is one of the certainties in life and is such a vast subject with so many different taxes to consider eg Personal taxes, Business taxes, Capital Gains, VAT, SDLT. Every transaction I do is also different as everyone’s objectives/goals are different – what is right for one person isn’t necessarily right for another and working with shareholders to establish the best solution (both personally for the shareholders and for the business) is why I do what I do.

A little bit of tax knowledge can be very dangerous and that’s where I can help! I won’t know all of the answers but we have an amazing team of specialists at CP including R&D, VAT, Capital allowances, employment taxes, internal taxes/transfer pricing, wealth management, accounting, audit and corporate finance.

Why do you do it?

I always thought I would be an accountant of some sort, but it was only when I started the tax part of my accounting training that I realised how interesting tax is, but also how complex it can seem to most people.

I enjoy doing what I do as I can really see that the advice I give can change people’s lives for the better both financially and emotionally. I also like to try simplify what can be quite daunting and technically complex transactions so people understand what I am doing without lots of technical jargon and noise.

What kind of projects have you been involved in?

Every business is different and every business faces different challenges throughout it’s lifecycle. I enjoy working with business owners working through those challenges and ultimately understanding what their exit strategy is, be it a single shareholder wishing to exit or all of the shareholders together. I enjoy working with each shareholder to help them achieve their exit in the most tax efficient way to maximise their return on a sale.

One of areas of expertise is looking at the most efficient structure of a business and implementing restructures where necessary. This could be for a number of reasons such as protecting certain assets either commercially or personally, preparing a business for a sale, helping resolve shareholder disputes or simply to simplify the group structure to create efficiencies.

I’ve helped property investors incorporate their businesses into a limited company

Property purchases can be an opportunity missed or opportunity gained if structured in the right way. I’ve worked with many businesses to get Capital Allowances on a property build or acquisition. Ultimately meaning it costs less and you can spend the money elsewhere.

At the end of the day it’s all about adding value. Being there for people when I’m needed and bringing ideas to them.

What’s on top of your bucket list?

I love to travel and I love sport so why not combine the two?! My latest passion is Swimrun races (constantly swapping between swimming and trail running – you swim in your trainers and run in your wetsuit!). Swimrun is the sport that was born from a drunken bet and generally done in a team of two racing together. ÖtillÖ is the name of the original race in Sweden but now forms the world series so it would be good to do one of their races…but maybe not in Sweden as it would be too cold for me!