What do you do?

I work in the business tax compliance team. My work helps companies to meet their tax compliance obligations, whilst also looking for opportunities for companies to save tax through planning and best use of the taxation legislation. With the ultimate aim of reducing to as close to zero as possible the chance of a company getting any questions from HMRC.

Why do you do it?

I was always good at maths at school and quite frankly loved working with numbers all day every day (as sad as that makes me sound 😉) and playing sport. Given I wasn’t good enough at anything to make a living as a professional sportsman, the next best thing was working as an accountant. I started as an auditor but soon got bored with that, so after 4 years, when I luckily was given the opportunity to move into tax, I did, which, with the ever changing tax landscape, interested me so much more. And I’ve just progressed from there. I joined CP at the end of 2023 when it acquired part of Haines Watts. That move was a bit daunting at first but the people at CP are so nice and the culture so good that I’ve settled in well and feel like I’ve been here for many years.

What kind of projects have you been involved in?

I get involved with a variety of projects, mostly related to larger companies and groups. Work can differ significantly each day and I like that variety. But I have to admit to really liking the detail of the tax legislation, applying it to groups of companies and calculating how much each company in a group can and should claim, in order to minimise the total tax payable!

What’s top of your bucket list?

Difficult to say – I might have to say climbing Scarfell Pike. I did the 3 Peaks challenge a few years ago but the timing was such that we climbed and descended Scarfell in darkness, so I’d like to go back and do it during the day.