GREAT PRODUCTS DESIGNED SPECIFICALLY FOR CLIENTS AND HIGH-VALUE ACCESSORIES: RICHARD CURTIS LOOKS AT THE BOUTIQUE TAX FIRM
Do you know, I’ve often felt that there were many similarities between the fashion and taxation businesses. To achieve the ‘haute couture’ appellation, a fashion house must:
What’s the difference between that and a boutique tax firm? Generally, the latter will be designing tax solutions particular to its clients, which will almost certainly require more than one meeting to ensure a good ‘fit’. It will have an office.
Okay, it doesn’t have to have at least 15 people working there, but then again our guys aren’t standing around looking at themselves in the mirror half of the time. After all, who would you be able to charge that to?
And each season it has the opportunity to present itself to the press – at the Taxation Awards ceremony of course; where, as it happens, we do require a certain high standard of dress.
Where are these businesses? Milan, Paris, London, Alresford, Nottingham, New Malden, Stockport? Oh sorry, in case you became a little confused there, I’d gone on to talk about tax, not just fashion.
The Alresford atelier
The VAT Consultancy won last year’s Taxation award for ‘best tax team in a boutique firm’. John Crawford, the managing director, in his ‘atelier’ – office to you and me – in Alresford, Hampshire, told me about the firm and how it was run.
‘Well, first, VAT is a very interesting subject, so it’s an intellectually stimulating area to work in. Secondly, until they decide to abolish the tax on a global basis [As likely as seeing Lady Gaga in a shell suit - Ed], then I would say we’ve got a job for life.’
John started his career with the Revenue and after experience of the real world in a major firm he started The VAT Consultancy.
‘I felt there was room for an independent specialist VAT firm and the fact that we have been growing ever since makes me think I was right. We now have two offices and ten consultants and are still picking up new business and new clients every day.
‘To use your fashion metaphor, we “cut our cloth” to a very simple design with a first class, fast and accurate service to our clients, helping them save money and improve cashflow. We don’t cross sell, so accountants are happy to seek our advice, and winning the Taxation award last year did us a power of good. We really were up there with the best on the catwalk.’
Malcolm Nichols is a consultant with the firm.
‘Working for a boutique firm requires specialist knowledge in the area that the firm has as its core business. Staff do have to get on with each other as sometimes it is all hands to the pump!
‘The interaction between the staff and the managing director is really good. With a boutique firm comes a high degree of responsibility, and there is also an involvement with how the firm sets out its objectives. It’s very rewarding to see your own suggestions being implemented; something that may not happen when you are in a larger firm. A boutique firm is more flexible, dynamic and creates its own synergy.’
Model recruitment
Georgiana Head of Georgiana Head Recruitment deals with several boutique firms.
‘A clear advantage of a tax boutique is that the focus of the firm is purely on tax; there is no conflict between you and an audit team and no Sarbanes Oxley issues to consider. With the increasing complexity of tax legislation it is unsurprising that boutique firms have developed, marketing themselves as true specialists in areas such as VAT, transfer pricing or share schemes.
‘National accountancy firms feel comfortable referring clients to boutiques, because they don’t usually provide compliance services and will often sign a “non-poach” clause. So the national firm doesn’t feel at risk, while still being able to satisfy its clients’ needs without itself being seen to be doing “tax product work”.
‘While the recession has affected some tax boutiques, overall this is an expanding market in the UK and good examples of growing boutiques are The VAT People in Stockport, EDF tax in Nottingham and share schemes specialists RM2 at New Malden.’
I told you that Stockport and Nottingham were places to watch.
Georgiana’s final thoughts were that time in a tax boutique can be very productive career wise.
‘It can help you get a balance between business development and technical work. It wouldn’t usually preclude you from moving back to a larger firm at a later date, but we tend to find that those candidates who have worked for a tax boutique are loathe to leave that environment. Candidates like the collegiate atmosphere and sense of ownership that they get in a smaller specialist practice.’
Providing support
EDF Tax LLP is a tax advisory firm based in Nottingham, but with clients nationwide. Primarily, it provides ad hoc advice to accountants and their clients on all of the major taxes including VAT and SDLT, as well as tax investigations support and advice.
Craig Hughes, a senior manager with the firm explained: ‘Advising the clients of other firms of accountants means we get exposure to a diverse range of issues. Just recently, to cite two examples, we have been asked to advise on the secondment of an employee overseas and the merger of a group of companies.
'No one day is the same. Working with a team of like-minded people, without the office politics of different departments’ agendas, makes for a stimulating and refreshing environment. Working in a smaller firm means that you get to know all of your colleagues well which creates a great atmosphere for us and our clients; they are not dealing with a “faceless” organisation.
‘Due to the nature of our work, having a mixed tax or OMB-tax background is a great advantage as the majority of the clients of the firms we act for are typically entrepreneurial and family-owned businesses. This means you get to know the people and personalities behind the business and makes our service more personal.
‘As we are purely a tax advisory firm we do not have the hectic January that comes with preparing personal tax returns. On the flip side there is no audit compliance base from which to procure tax work – all of our work comes from repeat business (which speaks volumes for the quality and personal service of our work), referrals or self-generation.’
Building fashion
Property is always in fashion in the UK and the banking, tax and finance team at Davis Langdon – nominees in last year’s Taxation Awards – have made this their specialist area. The firm is an international cost consultancy supporting its clients with regards to real estate and capital assets.
‘Traditionally, we would have been called quantity surveyors’ explained Rachel Sanders, the team’s head, ‘but we are now very involved in construction and property consultancy with our team’s expertise on a wide range of issues including; capital allowances, land remediation relief, grant funding and VAT. We are also involved with a number of property-related tax panels, such as CIOT, RICS, etc.’
Team members combine their knowledge of property with a detailed understanding of related tax issues and many have taken the tax route to qualification as chartered surveyors, as well as the ATT qualification.
Members tend to stay with the firm for a long time and Rachel was telling me of a recent meeting where they had over 100 years’ combined experience ready to give advice. I wondered what she thought of the perceived danger of over specialisation in a particular field, but given the importance of property to the UK economy, there seems little danger of this here.
Rachel also noted that ‘green issues are becoming increasingly important in the property market, with schemes to encourage energy-efficiency and this is a growing area where our clients need specialist tax advice on how this affects them and the reliefs that are available’.
Round the curves
ASE Plc is a specialist firm, whose tax team deals with another fashionable business – also well known for its Italian designers now that I think of it – the motor trade. Senior manager, Peter Wilkinson, explained that ASE originally stood for ‘Automotive Services Europe’ (although the company now operates all over the world) – and the tax team advises motor manufacturers and dealers.
Preparing dealership accounts and compiling composite information for manufacturers means that the firm has a huge amount of data on the trade and how it is performing. This in turn means that they can give extremely relevant advice to their clients.
Peter says, ‘Our tax knowledge is largely transferable, but we have carved out a niche in the motor business which represents our core business and this is how we present ourselves to the world. Of course, some of our motor trade clients are also involved in other businesses as well, some linked to the trade and some not, and this also adds a degree of variety to our work.
‘There are twelve of us in the tax team’ Peter explained, ‘and we took on two trainees last year; one is taking the CIOT exam course, the other is working towards the ICAEW. We have benefited from the organic growth that taking trainees provides, but are always looking to recruit specialists.
‘We have significant VAT expertise and have undertaken a major project to recover VAT for previous years for 850 companies in the motor trade – most not our own clients – and have written a VAT manual for a major manufacturer. We are looking to recruit additional specialists in VAT and capital allowances – dealers are required by manufacturers to extend or refurbish premises on a regular basis and this presents tax-planning opportunities.’
A wide range
In the view of Matthew Champkin, tax practice manager at recruitment consultants Goodman Masson, candidates for a place at a boutique tax firm need to be aware of the pros and cons.
‘The advantages are attractive. First, you’re likely to have more responsibility at an earlier stage of your career. You are also likely to be dealing with better quality and more technically challenging work and you will probably have more involvement with clients than you might at a mid-tier or larger firm.
‘Perhaps the boutique firms that deal with a wider range of tax may be more attractive. Those dealing with, say, VAT, expatriates, and personal and private client work may be able to better compete against the larger firms, and in fact will probably even be used by those firms to provide specialist services to their own clients. On the other side of the coin, those tackling corporate work, unless in a very specialised area, may find it a struggle to compete against the Big 4.’
The danger, if there is one, for the junior tax professional, thought Matthew, was that one might be ‘left on the shelf’ if you were dealing with a tax ‘product’ that was closed down by legislation. You might then have committed the ultimate fashion ‘faux pas’ and be left with the professional equivalent of having nothing to wear. Although it sounds like a contradiction, the wider the specialism the better. Taking up my fashion theme,
Matthew’s suggestion was that ‘while it might be good to have a haute couture product to show the world, if you can keep a wider range of clientele happy with your prêt-a-porter selection you are likely to have a greater chance of career success’.
The beautiful figure
So fashion, beauty and taxation do go together. In Italy, one is trying to achieve the bella figura, the beautiful figure.
And if you spend a little time sitting at a pavement cafe, I’m sure you’ll see a selection of these go by. But back in the real world, it’s taxation that we are dealing with. And working in tax, haven’t you sat at your desk, sipping a morning cappuccino, gazing adoringly at a well-executed tax computation?
I expect we have all been able to appreciate the fine lines of a tax-planning exercise that has gone from a simple idea, to being sketched out, then subjected to detailed planning, and ultimately a final fitting to the client’s specific requirements.
Exactly the type of work carried out by a tax boutique and just like a piece of haute couture clothing now that I think of it – ‘bella figures’ perhaps?
