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Honesty and being scammed – but being honest and not stupid

There is nothing more embarrassing than coming to the realisation you have been scammed. It happened to me this year. I was called by ‘James’ the man that I had believed for the last 4 years had been running my business profile on Google. He called himself my ‘Google Manager’ and had convinced me to pay him money so that Google would host my business listing and make changes such as putting our new business telephone number up when we moved offices. He was totally convincing and it was only when I realised that he was asking for money more than once in a year and that a change hadn’t been made to my listing that I started to wonder if he was ‘totally legit’. In fact it was when he was telling me that my bank would ask me to text ‘yes’ for a transaction to be processed – that I really thought ’Hang on’ that doesn’t sound right. In the past, he had assured me anyone else who rang me about business listings or SEO were scammers and only he as a ‘Google Manager’ was legitimate. He even told me to pass on his telephone number to them. The more I look back on things, the more embarrassed but also angry I became. When I did a check on-line I realised that it is a really common scam and his particular company (which clearly – I now realise - isn’t Google) is all over the web for dodgy dealings. So what have I learnt from this experience? Well firstly that there isn’t a lot of recourse when you have been scammed. I talked to Citizens’ Advice and to the police fraud department. Also that if you have paid someone more than once – it is deemed that you accepted their services even if that service never actually materialised. The most important thing perhaps is that Google business listings are free! That you, as the business owner both control and own your company’s listing. It got me thinking about my own business and the world in which I work – the tax market place. I think that as a naturally honest person who is also an optimist, I tend to always see the best in people. That I work in a professional environment my clients being accountancy firms, law firms and the in-house teams of Plcs and banks. The people that I deal with tend in the main to be professionally qualified and as part of their qualifications they agree to perform their jobs with a level of ethical behaviour. In fact those who tend to do well in tax tend to be naturally risk averse, polite, decent, honest people. Having spent over half my life interviewing both clients and candidates I’ve realised that it is quite unusual for me to dislike someone; that when I get a bad feeling about a candidate or client, I should listen to that feeling. If you have ever read ‘Blink’ by journalist and social commentator Malcolm Gladwell you will understand that you should listen to intuition. It is your ‘thinking brain’ catching up with your ‘lizard brain’. He gives numerous examples of how experts just ‘know something’ whether it’s a doctor diagnosing an illness or an art historian identifying a fake, that years of studying something make you realise instinctively when something doesn’t feel right. It’s the moment when as a tax person you look at some information and realise something is wrong – the tax planning won’t work or the accounts are wrong. Then you have to work back to why you think this and find the proof for your hunch. Your mind recognises the smallest clues and does this in fractions of seconds – but then you need to follow this intuitive leap with the facts and work out why this diagnosis is correct (or indeed if your intuition was flawed this time). In the same way when you interview a candidate or meet a client and find yourself trying to rationalise why you don’t like or trust them or perhaps more subtly feel they just aren’t being totally honest. In fact whenever you find yourself trying to talk yourself in to liking them, then that is when you really need to listen to your intuition. You need to question it. Are you being prejudiced in someway? For example do they unconsciously remind you of someone else? Do you need to like them? Will they still fit in the team? Could you still work with them? But under it all you need to try and work out if what your intuition is actually telling you is correct. Basic honesty is a pre-requisite in a tax advisor and honesty is also what you need from a client to be able to advise them legally. In much the same way when you yourself are interviewing for a new job you need to be objective but you also have to think about your gut feel. If you have two job offers – you need to think which is the one that your gut says ‘I’d like to work here’. It is much easier to tell if someone is being honest if you meet them in person – I’m going to use that as my excuse for not recognising my scammer as dishonest as I only ever talked to him on the phone. People give away a lot in their body language. I always liked the Neurolinguistic Programming idea that people move their eyes to one side when remembering and another when lying – it’s the basis of a lot of plots by crime writer Peter James as his wily detective interviews the suspects. Now the science behind this bit of ‘NLP’ has been largely debunked and yet there are people who are naturally good at reading people – kind of ‘human lie detectors’. The FBI behavioural experts such as author Joe Navarro https://www.jnforensics.com/about who uses non verbal cues to tell if suspects are lying – he says there is no ‘Pinocchio’ tell for when someone is lying but that by analysing their ‘baseline’ body language and speech patterns you can then tell if someone is feeing discomfort when being questioned. I think this is why taking the time to put a candidate at ease, asking about their journey for example – helps you instinctively assess later on in the interview when they are telling the truth or not. I always tell candidates that honesty is the best policy – that you should tell the truth in interviews. When I first moved in to recruitment it was standard practice to advise candidates that when they were asked a ‘strengths and weaknesses’ style question they should try and make a strength out of any weakness. A classic example would be: ‘some people will probably find my desk annoying because I’m such a clean freak, but I think that it just reflects how accurate and tidy my work is’. Nowadays this type of behaviour is labelled as Humble Bragging. In 2015 Harvard University and UNC researchers discovered that candidates who tried to dissemble and make a ‘strength out of a weakness’ during interview questioning came across as dishonest. Whereas an honest assessment of weaknesses came across more positively – e.g. I’m actually quite OCD about tidiness’ – comes across as much more honest. So is honesty really the best policy? Well the majority of the time, yes it is. However you also shouldn’t be actively stupid. Interviews are stressful things. They make even the brightest people nervous and unfortunately therefore prone to say and do stupid things. Let me give you an example of this; I once had a candidate who was at the final stage of interview for a role in a law firm. They were being offered the rare chance to retrain and do reduced legal articles whilst being a fully paid up member of the tax department. The office managing partner asked this individual what their dream role was. Unfortunately, instead of saying that they had always wanted to be a lawyer, then backing this up with proof such as the fact that they did a law degree and law society finals and explaining how this dream was thwarted as hadn’t managed to get articles after graduating. They instead replied that their dream role was to be a sport’s management agent. Obviously they didn’t get that job. So be honest but also let common sense prevail, it is not your job in an interview to say anything which will actively be detrimental to you application, it is your job to sell your experience without lying or embellishing it. Georgiana Head trained in Tax with Pricewaterhouse and has worked in Taxation Recruitment for the last 22 years. She is ATT qualified and is a member of the Association of Tax Technicians Members Steering Group and the Business Development Committees. Georgiana founded her own recruitment business in 2007 and recruits for Plcs, Law firms, Big 4 firms, the Top 20 and independent firms throughout the Midlands and North of England. She is regular contributor to the Tax Press and also lectures for the CIOT, WIT and the Law Society on Soft Skills training. She has also presented to the ICAEW on behalf of the CIOT and ATT on MTD. She is a committee member of WIT in Leeds and Manchester. Her proudest work moment was talking at the Wyman Symposium on the Future of the Tax Profession. To contact her call 0113 426 6672 or email her at georgiana@ghrtax.com

TAX PRACTICE vs INDUSTRY - THE BIG DEBATE

As a tax professional, you will inevitably come up against the decision of whether to build a career in practice or to move into an industry role. Both have their pros and cons, and your decision will ultimately come down to what type of person you are, what is important to you in your career, and your long-term goals. Making this decision can often be difficult as roles in practice and industry both have a lot to offer, but our specialist tax recruiters have put together key advice to help you make an informed decision! Type of Work The type of work can differ quite significantly between tax roles in practice and in commercial business’ and the type of work your role will entail will depend on the company. In practice you are likely to specialise in one specific area, whether this is corporate tax, investigations, personal tax or VAT etc. A positive of this us you become a real deep tax specialist and have the ability to work on a variety of clients, often in varying sectors. On the other hand, working in-house allows you to fully immerse yourself in one business and look at the company in its entirety. You will be working in a more commercial role and get closer to the business and see how different departments interact, such as legal, sales, finance and tax, and in this way, an in-house tax position can perhaps offer a broader role. Another point to consider is whether you are looking for a role that is highly client facing. If this is the case and client interactions are something you enjoy, a role in practice is likely to suit you. However, with this also comes client pressures. Timesheets and billings are a necessary part of a tax role in practice and is one of the biggest reasons why people choose to move in-house. Due to the nature of an in-house role, it is rare that you will have timesheets or financial targets, and typically you will have more autonomy over your work, with your working environment often more relaxed due to the absence of client pressures. Lastly, if you are looking to be involved with the business development side of the firm you work for, you are best to seek a role within practice as opposed to in-house. Business development is a big part of working in a tax practice role, especially as you moe up the food chain, as you will focus on building and maintaining client relationships while with an in-house role, you will instead focus on raising the profile of the tax team within the wider organisation. Salary & Benefits When it comes to benefits, a role in a well-established practice with defined risk & reward teams will see you receive a healthy remuneration and benefits package. Working for a commercial business, whether this is a FTSE 100, US-listed or Fortune 500 business, you will receive not only a good remuneration package but also additional benefits including flexible working and commercial discounts. Differences in salary between in-house and tax practice roles depends on the level you reach within your company. Initially, although you may be willing to take a pay drop to move in-house there is often no need to, as a move in-house typically comes with a 10-20% pay increase and a premium. As a general rule, you will always be better paid within industry up until a certain point, which is when it comes to Partner vs. Head of Tax. Working in practice as a Partner will always outstrip the earnings of a Head of Tax in a commercial business, although of course there are always exceptions to the rule. Therefore, when considering which path to take it is important to consider your long term career goals and whether your ambition is to end up as a Partner or Head of Tax. Working Hours Working hours tend to be better with in-house tax roles as opposed to in practice. There are usually smaller teams with a collaborative working pattern as opposed to the larger structured teams you often find in practice. Additionally, client responsibilities with a role in practice mean you need to be on call and meet clients, whereas in-house roles can offer better flexibility and opportunities to work from home, as well as regular working hours and less late nights, allowing for a better work-life balance. Although this is typically the case there are, of course, some exceptions and more large tax practices are now understanding the value a healthy work-life balance adds to employee effectiveness and happiness, and are making inroads to improve this. Progression Prospects Working in-house gives you the opportunity to move around the business, both across and upwards. You will work in a smaller team which gives you more responsibility in your role which will only broaden your prospects in the future, and there can be good opportunities for progression as in-house teams tend to have less of a rigid structure than tax teams in a large practice. However, in some circumstances it can be difficult to move upwards - ultimately, it depends on the company. While some large commercial companies, like those in the oil or automotive industry, have huge tax teams with structure and great progression opportunities, other companies have very small or even one-person tax teams. While this gives you more autonomy in your role, the opportunity to work closely with the Head of Tax or Director and exposure to different services lines within the company, this can also limit your opportunity to progress within the company itself. On the flip side, working in tax practice typically offers a clear and structured progression route. You will be in a position where if you hit business development and financial targets and pass your qualifications, you will move up the chain. Whilst an in-house role could potentially be a stand-alone position with limited resources to call upon, in practice, you are surrounded by technical expertise and talent. You will be working at the forefront of changes in legislation and therefore a role in practice provides you with excellent learning opportunities, as well as good progression prospects. Ease of Finding a New Opportunity It is relatively easy to move from practice to an in-house role, particularly if you are newly qualified and coming from one of the Big 4 or Top 10 as you will be highly sought after. Once you have in-house experience, you will find other doors open for you to take a step-up role in another commercial business, as some positions will require relevant experience. One of the main benefits of working in-house is the opportunity to work for a household brand or in an industry you’re interested in, whether this is retail, media, construction, automotive or telecoms, to name a few. Once you have chosen to move into a commercial business, it can be difficult to move back into practice. The longer you spend away from practice the harder it becomes, as you may find you lose the client-handling skills essential for practice. Therefore, it is important to be sure where you want to end up before making the move in-house and consider the wide range of career opportunities available to you within practice. Ultimately, your decision will come down to what type of work suits you and what you want from your career as a tax professional. If you are looking for a role within a company whose brand and household name excites you, and where you will have a broad, autonomous role and opportunities for flexible working, then a role in industry may suit you. On the other hand, if you are looking for a client facing role that sees you working on business development and at the forefront of changes in legislation, with clearly defined learning and progression opportunities, you should pursue a tax role in practice. For more information on this article, or for advice on your next career move into either a tax practice role or a position in-house, contact Marianne on 020 7269 6319 or marianne.wills@pro-tax.co.uk.

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