In-House Tax Blog

Tax Technology advice for large companies

2009-06-27T12:02:00.004+01:00

There is a very good summary article that I noticed on the current situation on tax technology as it is affecting large businesses, now and in the future. It has been written for AccountancyAge.com by Michelle Quest and Bivek Sharma, both Tax Partners at KPMG.

This article is applicable to all UK Heads of Tax and CFOs. Read it by clicking here

More Big 4 tax appointments from in-house market

2009-06-26T12:58:00.003+01:00

Source: Tax Careers

There are new faces in KPMG's tax practice following the appointment of Angus Wilson and Darren Mellor-Clark as Tax Partners.

Wilson, former European Head of Tax and acting European CFO at Babcock & Brown, joins the firm's infrastructure tax group.

Mellor-Clark, who was global lead for VAT and Sales taxes at UBS, joins KPMG's financial services practice as an Associate Partner.

Caitriona Hunt, joint head of corporate tax and head of the business services tax practice at KPMG in the UK, said: "These are important, strategic hires to our business. Our practice is enjoying strong growth in key areas, and these appointments will significantly enhance our capabilities in these parts of the tax practice"

SG comment: Within the last 12 months, there has been a spate of senior in-house tax professionals, particularly from banks, making the move to London Big 4 firms at Partner level. Whilst this makes good sense for the tax execs making this sort of career move, I find it quite surprising that the Big 4 have brought so many new Tax Partners given the general business and economic environment. Of course, bringing in senior tax expertise from industry / banking can be very valuable to the Big 4 practice, in that it immediately increases their client network in a particular sector (eg VAT / Funds), and the individuals themselves bring extremely valuable experience from the buyers perspective ie buyer of tax services. The downside, however, is that I sense the (new) Tax Partners coming in have got the enormous task of bringing in high tax fees from what is now a much smaller and increasingly fiercely competitive market. Very strong selling skills I imagine will be the order of the day.

KPMG makes further cuts in UK tax practice

2009-06-10T13:58:00.003+01:00

Source: AccountancyAge.com

KPMG plans to cut jobs in its UK tax department in response to the recession and a slump in demand for merger and acquisition-related tax advice.

The UK’s third biggest accounting firm emailed UK staff today to tell them that it needs to cut jobs in its tax and people services department in the UK.

In an email to staff Richard Bennison, chief operating officer at KPMG, told staff it needed to cut the jobs in response to a changing market for tax services.

An industry source said that a couple of hundred jobs could be cut. A spokesman for KPMG confirmed that the firm planned to cut jobs in its UK tax practice, but declined to give a likely figure for job cuts. He said that it was still consulting staff.

Earlier this year, KPMG offered UK staff the chance to do a four-day working week, or take extended unpaid leave, in an effort to avoid redundancies if the economy deteriorated further.

The accountancy profession has been hit by a wave of redundancies over the past year. Firms including Deloitte, Grant Thornton and PKF have announced plans to cut hundreds of jobs in expectation of slower revenue growth this year.

Thousands of redundancies in financial services have cut the amount of advisory work on offer, while merger and acquisition activity has also slowed dramatically.

SG Comment: This appears to be the next phase, effectively 2nd round of heavy cost cutting, from one of the Big 4 firm's tax function. Although in the case of KPMG, their clever tactic was to lose cost and not people in their first round of cuts, by putting people into 4 days per week contracts. From my initial warning note Credit Crunch - Impact on Tax Jobs in Sept 2007, we have now seen a few waves of job cuts in the tax market, the first round with the Big 4 taking place in December 2008. There have been whole teams of tax structuring people (not in-house tax) cut from some of the investment banks, and in-house tax teams across industry / commerce have generally had to make some reductions, although quite small, on average shaving c.5-10% of staff from a tax team. This is a generalism as I think a lot of in-house tax teams have remained the same size, as I predicted back in September 2007. My estimation is that we are now approx 12-15 months away from companies being able to recruit more freely for growth, although I suspect it could take longer as I think that these 'green shoots' that I keep hearing about could be quite classic false dawn.

Two Tax Software businesses merge

2009-05-29T17:56:00.003+01:00

Source: AccountancyAge

UK Taxworld and Informanagement, which both provide information and software on tax, compliance and governance changes to accountancy practice clients, have merged to create the fourth largest player in the market.

It will now compete directly with CCH, the biggest supplier of tax software and information in the UK. The merged business will now have a combined client database of up to 500 UK firms.

Laurence Vogel, head of UK operations at Informanagement, said: ‘We see ourselves benchmarked against CCH rather than other competitors.

Is there potential for other mergers in the pipeline, who knows? We just want to drive the business forward.’

Informanagement is a Dutch company created by three accountants in 2001 which currently supplies to 10% of the Dutch market. It launched in the UK last year and will act as the parent company to UK Taxworld.

Informanagement has said there are no redundancy plans. It will consolidate customer service centres but both company’s will retain their names, though Informanagement will add ‘incorporating UK Taxworld’. The change will be reflected on their website later this month.

Prior to the merger Informanagement would have sat towards the bottom of the top ten players in the industry, with UK Taxworld sitting in the middle.

CCH were unavailable for comment at time of going to press.

Tax Technology Forum - 29th April 2009 at the IoD - Review

2009-05-02T10:22:00.004+01:00

The first Tax Technology Forum, hosted by Talentpool Selection, was held at the Institute of Directors on Wednesday evening this week.

Following initial welcome drinks and opportunity for networking / reacquainting with ex-colleagues, the event got straight into the discussion on current issues and challenges faced in tax technology, and what we could expect in the future.

There was a panel of six experts, highly experienced in the field of tax technology and accounting systems, answering questions and queries from a room of 35 tax and/or tax technology professionals.

The panel was:

Andrew Wrentmore – ONESource Tax Provision, Thomson Reuters

Alan James – European Director, Vertex Global Tax Solutions

Graham Tilbury – Independent Tax Technology Consultant

Michael Camburn – Managing Director, Ryan & Company

Ilana Rinkoff – Director of Tax Risk Management Network

Gareth Scanlon – EMEIA Tax Performance Advisory Group, Ernst & Young

Questions raised included:

• My organisation is about to embark on a major finance transformation. We are looking to implement a standardised ERP system with a view to achieving tax automation. What have other companies done on this? We are looking for creative / visionary ideas which are currently being employed in the market.

• Under proposals introduced in the Budget, the Senior Accounting Officer will now be personally accountable for certifying that they have adequate accounting systems in place to ensure the accuracy of their tax computations or face penalties of up to £5,000 plus loss of reputation and Company fines:
- What is meant by 'accounting systems' – would this naturally include the tax technology/IT system?

• What type / size of organisation benefit most from employing an indirect tax solution?

• What are the expectations / predictions for the future in terms of how tax / VAT / PAYE technology will look? Are companies looking to automate tax to the extent they will be operating with a ‘touch of a button’ solution?

• I work in tax with a UK group. From a risk management perspective, what do you advise re filing of our documents / correspondence. What e-filing systems are available?

Quite thorough and well thought out answers were given from a combination of the panel experts. The Senior Accounting Officer personally accountable question was heavily debated, with some conflicting views on what we could expect from HMRC on this. This questions could have potentially filled the whole hour of discussion, rather than the 20 mins it was granted. This really does sound like it will be a major minefield for FDs / CFOs of large companies when the rules kick in, and it was likened to the whole Sarbanes-Oxley regime that came in a few years ago.

The question about the future outlook of tax technology and could we see a 'push of a button' solution was healthily debated between the panelists and the attendees, with the general consensus that this is slightly in the realms of Sci-fi rather than practical realism, and that international businesses are so complex than human input can not yet be replaced by clever machines.

Initial feedback from the event has been very positive:

"Thank you Simon for organizing the event, the event also clearly marked that even with the technology today and virtual communication, people like to discuss and share information verbally and face to face, thanks from Holland"

"A great evening Simon. Many thanks for organizing the event. I made a number of new friends and reconnected with some old ones too. Budget Note 62 seemed a big topic, and one that didn't fit into the time our session allowed, so I'm expecting to see plenty of debate here over the coming days once the Draft Finance Bill has been published and digested."

"Thanks for the opportunity to present; it was very worthwhile from my perspective and actually I have had quite some interest from people looking to “link-in” on LinkedIn which is great testament to such a networking event."

FDs / CFOs - are your tax controls adequate?

2009-04-26T21:03:00.003+01:00

The Government announced a number of measures in this week's budget to ensure that businesses and individuals pay the right amount of tax and reduce the opportunity for evasion, avoidance or non-compliance. The clauses which I suspect will be mostly of interest to readers of this blog are:

- it will legislate for the publication by HMRC of the names of both corporate
and individual taxpayers who incur a penalty because they have deliberately
understated more than £25,000 of tax;

- it will establish a statutory requirement for senior accounting officers of major corporates to certify personally that adequate controls to prepare accurate tax computations are in place;

- HMRC will require those who have incurred a penalty for deliberate
understatement of over £5,000 of tax to provide more information about
their tax affairs for up to five years to ensure they have proper systems to be
able to make a correct tax return; and

- HMRC will shortly issue a draft code of practice on taxation for the banking
sector, along with a consultation document.

This will be quite a significant issue for in-house tax functions, and clearly means that the FD / CFO of a business has a personal motivation for shining a torch over the systems and controls that are in place to ensure that the tax computations process is solid, thereby delivering accurate CT returns to HMRC.

This may lead to companies upgrading and investing in better tax technology solutions to put in place greater automation over the tax computations process, thereby increasing accuracy and reducing risk of error through possible out-of-date spreadsheet methods.

This new budget development will certainly be a topic debated at Talentpool's forthcoming Tax Technology discussion evening, to be held at the IoD on 29th April.

Top 10 firm senior tax guys appointed to top level banking positions

2009-04-19T14:10:00.004+01:00

Rob Withecombe has been appointed as head of wealth advisory at Barclays Wealth. He joins the London office from Grant Thornton where he was a partner, head of tax and a member of the firm’s operational board. Withecombe joined Grant Thornton in 1996 and was the tax partner in a regional office until 2002. With over 20 years’ experience he has also worked for KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Kleinwort Benson has also appointed Jeremy Croysdill as head of tax services. His career began at Ernst & Whinney in the personal tax group, transferring to the private client services of Ernst & Young on its merger with Arthur Young. He joined Stoy Hayward in 1990 where he dealt with high net worth individuals providing them with compliance and planning initiatives, trust work and IHT advice. He joined Kleinwort Benson in 2005, most recently as part of the product advisory team.

Banking tax specialists move to E&Y as Tax Partners

2009-03-27T14:23:00.002Z

Stephen Hoyle and Andrew Martel have been appointed partners at Ernst & Young’s tax practice and will be based in E&Y’s EMEIA financial services office in London.

Hoyle joins from Deutsche Bank AG where he was managing director in the bank’s
structured capital markets division. He trained and qualified as a lawyer with
Nabarro Nathanson in London and then moved to Freshfields where he became a
tax partner.

Martel joins E&Y from asset management group CQS, where he was head of tax and prior to this he was a partner at Deloitte.

Tax Software Company does deal with Equifax

2009-03-27T13:13:00.003Z

Source: AccountancyAge.com

Acorah Software Products, the suppliers of tax software, has signed a deal with credit checkers Equifax to help accountants comply with anti-money laundering verifications.

Acorah has released TaxCalc AML Search and Verify Service which allows accountants to access Equifax's database looking up, existence checks and proof of identity.

Tracy Ebdon-Poole, CEO of TaxCalc.com said, 'the depth and accuracy of this data provides our customers with a detailed and reliable verification of the individual.'

'Further anti-money laundering products will be available in the coming months and we will be offering all customers of TaxCalc AML Search and Verify a refund of their initial registration fee when they buy these additional programmes' she added.

The company spent three months developing the software, which costs approximately £1.50 per search, with Equifax expressing an interest in entering the anti-money laundering verification space.

Firms are able to cross reference date all information found on the electoral roll, CCJ records as well as receive alerts from Royal Mail redirections and the Bank of England sanctions list.

Talentpool hosts Tax Technology Evening - 29th April 2009

2009-03-20T18:45:00.004Z

Talentpool is sponsoring and hosting an inaugural social event for tax technology specialists, to be held at the London IoD in the evening of Wednesday 29th April.

Adopting a Question Time type format, it will be an opportunity for tax technology professionals to pose questions to a panel of experts on current issues affecting the sector, and what to expect of tax technology in the future.

This event will be very informative for those at an experienced level within the tax technology sphere, and large company Heads of Tax.

Interested parties who would like to attend should contact Simon Godley on 07771 762353 or e-mail: sg@talentpoolselection.com

There are limited spaces available.

Banking VAT guys move (back) to E&Y

2009-02-24T06:04:00.003Z

Source: Tax Careers Magazine

E&Y has recently recruited two senior financial services VAT experts to take lead roles in its banking VAT team.

Mitchell Moss has joined as a Partner from law firm Dorsey & Whitney, where he worked in tax litigation.

Also, Andrew Bailey has joined as a Director from Lehman Brothers, where he was global head of VAT.

Both previously worked at E&Y. Andrew Bailey was there between 1996 and 1999, before moving on to KPMG. He was at KPMG for 5-6 years, operating as a Senior Manager in the FS VAT team before being appointed into the Lehman role.

Digita clinches Smith & Williamson for tax software

2009-02-06T11:35:00.002Z

Source: AccountancyAge.com

Smith & Williamson has moved to Digita for its tax software, replacing current supplier CCH.

The firm moved from CCH, the accountancy IT provider that is part of Wolters Kluwer, to Digita Personal Tax.

Lee Drewett, senior national tax manager at Smith & Williamson, said: 'Having the best tax software and best customer service is essential for our tax practice to ensure that we continue to provide the very best taxation service to all our clients whether they be individuals, trusts or businesses.'

Digita is backed by Thomson Reuters and is part of the Sweet & Maxwell division that produces legal and publishing material. Digita also supplies software to Baker Tilly, RSM Bentley Jennison and Haines Watts.

SG comment: I suspect this is a significant win for Digita, now part of the Thomson Reuters empire. Thomson Reuters seem to be making good progress in the UK on the tax software front, having acquired both CrossBorder Solutions (Transfer Pricing software) and Digita (personal, business and trusts tax software) within the last 18 months.

Happy New Year...but not a happy tax market

2009-01-16T17:41:00.004Z

By Simon Godley

Returning into this New Year (2009), we are seeing what was completed expected - a pretty dead recruitment market. On speaking to a number of Heads of Tax across commerce & industry, there is next to zero appetite to recruit additional tax staff. This is largely because the vast majority of commercial organisations have a recruitment freeze, thereby making it impossible to approve any recruitment. In some cases, if the size of an in-house tax team reduced last year due to people moving on, it is proving difficult to justify replacing them.

That said, the employment market seems to be reacting to the economic conditions as one would expect. We are now in full blown recession, which will possibly take another 7-12 months to run its course to completion, however the employment market will take a while longer to recover as hiring fresh people into a business won't happen until chief execs and business heads feel confident again about the business growth plans. This could be another 12 months beyond the end of the recession.

One positive is that although the Big Four firms have made some staff cuts (including tax professionals), these staff reductions have been relatively small compared to the total sizes of their tax departments. Then again, there may be more staff reductions during 2009, let's see how the market progresses.

Tax Market - Reflecting on 2008

2008-12-19T11:00:00.002Z

By Simon Godley

Firstly, I would like to wish all readers of this tax blog and all professionals within the in-house tax market a very good Christmas and happy and peaceful New Year.

This has been the year in which the credit crunch problem has finally crystallised and has hit all the markets very hard - the stock market, the general economy and more recently the employment market.

My first blog posting about how the credit crunch might affect in-house tax jobs was in September 2007, prompted by the major banks going on recruitment freezes. At that time, the market didn't feel too good, but we could not predict the financial tsunami that hit us 3 months ago. These hiring freezes didn't stay on during the first half of 2008, but since October / November, it's not just the banks which are on hiring freezes, but the majority of the UK commerce/industry market.

This is going to take a long while to untangle, but I intend to update this blog on the state of the tax job market during 2009, and hopefully this time next year things won't look quite so bleak.

Simon Godley

In-House Tax Movers - December 2008

2008-12-12T18:41:00.002Z

KBC Financial Products, a major subsidiary of Belgian banking group KBC Bank NV, has recently appointed Mahesh Lakhani as their new Global Head of Tax, based in London. Mahesh joins from Credit Suisse, where he was a Tax Director, responsible for front office advice to the equities and emerging markets teams. Mahesh is a very senior level tax executive, and joins KBC with a wealth of tax experience within investment banking.

Bridget Bolton has recently been recruited by Ricardo, a leading provider of technology and product innovation to the automotive industry, as Head of Tax & Treasury. Bridget joins from telecoms group Three, where she was Director of Tax & Treasury. Bridget is a very experienced tax executive, with 20 years’ experience in the field.

Glynis Moore has been appointed as Head of Group Tax with Fujitsu in the UK, the leading IT services group. She was previously Head of Group Tax with McBride Plc, the consumer goods manufacturer. Glynis has a broad tax background, having worked at a senior levels both within practice and industry.

Jumeirah in Dubai appoints Tax Director

2008-11-25T12:02:00.003Z

Source: Tax Careers Magazine

Dubai-based luxury hospitality group Jumeirah, which encompasses the 7 star hotel, the Burj Al Arab, has appointed Mariel Yard as Director of Tax.

Previously a Senior Manager - international tax structuring with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Dubai, she was previously based in Nicosia, Cyprus, she has also held roles with Eurofreight Logistics and NCR (middle east).

Yard told Tax Careers: 'Being an inhouse tax director in such a growing and dynamic group, I'm often asked to step outside my comfort zone and become more involved in business decision-making. It takes a willingness to work hard, but offers enormous challenges.'

Yard is fluent in Arabic, English and Greek.

ex-Andersen Tax Partners join Alvarez & Marsal

2008-11-12T20:20:00.003Z

Source: AccountancyAge.com

Alvarez & Marsal Taxand has appointed a global advisory board as it looks to expand.

The US firm is looking to get a foothold in the UK tax market, taking up where Chiltern left off in providing tax advice independent of audit conflicts of interest.

Former Arthur Andersen senior tax partners Harry Ruffalo, Andre Fogarasi and David Murby will form the new board.

As senior advisers, they will advise the firm on global marketing, training initiatives and delivering outstanding client service, the firm said.

'We are thrilled to have Harry, Andre and David, who were instrumental in the growth and success of Arthur Andersen's tax business during its heyday, working with us,' said Robert N. Lowe JR, head of Alvarez & Marsal Taxand.

'A&M's tax advisory business in the US and UK and across the globe through the Taxand network continues to experience exponential growth due to the demand by corporations for independent tax advice. This global advisory board lends a practiced, insightful point-of-view on executing our strategy of providing the market with a high quality fifth global tax firm.'

'The experience these individuals bring to our firm is invaluable,' said David Pert, head of Alvarez & Marsal Taxand UK. 'Their passion for the tax business is inspiring to all of our people.'

SG comment: This is definitely a firm to watch. They have recently taken on a number of ex-Arthur Andersen tax partners in the US and now the UK. Considering how Arthur Andersen built a Top 6 accounting firm from nothing in the 1960s through to the 2002, this could be the next Andersen type firm in the making.

Tax & Treasury man gets Group FD role

2008-10-14T18:08:00.001+01:00

Capital & Regional plc, the co-investing property asset manager, has appointed Charles Staveley as group finance director, he will join the board with effect from 1st October, 2008. Before joining the company in September 2007 as finance director, he was head of tax and treasury at COLT Telecom Group and prior to this he held roles with various other companies, including at security printer De La Rue Group plc, US-based aircraft and financial services group Textron Inc, and secure printing and industrial group Novar plc. Staveley qualified as a chartered accountant with Arthur Andersen and has additional tax and treasury qualifications.

WPP confirms tax led relocation to Ireland

2008-10-01T19:55:00.002+01:00

Source: AccountancyAge.com

WPP, the world's second-biggest advertising and marketing group, has confirmed it plans to move its official headquarters from Britain to Ireland because of punitive changes to the British tax regime.

A WPP spokesman told Reuters on Sunday the advertising giant was likely to issue a stock exchange announcement this week on its plans to change domicile.

The decision to move offshore will be a huge blow for the Treasury, particularly as Martin Sorrell, WPP chief executive, has acted as an ambassador for British business.

WPP, who paid ₤204m in UK taxes last year and conducts almost 90% of its business outside Britain, estimates the tax regime changes would add tens of millions to its British tax bill.

SG comment: This is quite a big deal for the Treasury as WPP do have such a high profile reputation in global marketing and advertising, and was worthy of a mention by David Cameron in his Conservative party conference speech today.

Financial Meltdown? Yes, but what about tax jobs?

2008-09-23T18:52:00.005+01:00

By Simon Godley

Since Sept 2007, I have blogged a few times on this subject (see Credit Crunch - Impact on Tax Jobs and State of the tax job market?...and let's be honest!). I have previously painted a rather bleak picture for the market outlook over the next few years, and now it is clear that that partly painted picture has become reality, with the 15th, 16th or 17th Sept 2008 now lodged firmly into the history books forever as the black Monday (or Tuesday or Wednesday) when the credit bubble finally burst and showed its real venom.

Also this afternoon, I have sat and listened to Gordon Brown deliver his labour party conference speech - facing up to today's dire state of financial markets, but at the same time telling us how strong the UK economy is, and how well labour have done to 'create' 3m new jobs since 1997.

I do have some respect for Gordon Brown - as he said in his speech today, he is a serious politician needing to deal with some serious problems, and I think he will probably try to do all he can to rescue the country from financial doom. But he lost quite a lot of my respect when he supposedly claimed a few years ago that the UK has moved on from a boom and bust economy. This was an amazingly silly statement from a UK chancellor, given that ever since Columbus discovered America in 1492 has there been several speculative bubbles (coupled with a large credit situation) and they have without exception always burst. And this is a phenomena that will never stop happening. It is clearly part of human nature to get excited and greedy about something (eg a new discovery or technological innovation) and as a result value a market at a price now that will not be actually be seen for many many years to come. When we realise this, its too late, and the bubble inevitably bursts. This time round, it seems to be property and commodities, coupled with a vast amount of balance sheet trickery by the investment banks. We clearly learnt nothing from Enron!

But what about jobs? Well here we will see a knock on boom / bust. Gordon Brown's 3m jobs that the Labour party has created will undoubtedly be followed by a dramatic rise in unemployment from 1m to possibly up to 3m in the UK, thereby cancelling out the good work.

And what about tax jobs? Well, at the moment this seems a little harder to work out. Partly because the Big 4 firms, the largest employers of tax people, have not yet properly shown their hands as to their position on staffing levels. I think over the last year they have lost people through natural attrition (which might be, say 5%, for example) and they are generally not replacing these people. They have not yet made any announcements on redundancies - some are saying that they are not recruiting, whilst others are saying they are still recruiting (when they are presented with a very good candidate).

So what will happen? My prediction is that the Big 4 will make redundancies, and it will affect the tax teams. This will be particularly acute in tax teams that thrive on M&A work (specifically acquisitions) or structured products. I think there will be a few rounds of redundancies, possibly the first one will be in Q1 of 2009, possibly earlier. I think waves of redundancies may continue into 2010. On the in-house side of the market, I think there will be many job losses amongst the middle and front office tax teams from the banks. Within broader commerce/industry, there will probably be a good level of corporate consolidation, and in-house tax roles may suffer where there is overlap of job functions. Aside from that, I don't think in-house tax teams will be reduced much, unless they are forced to reduce in numbers because of broader cuts that are taking place in head office functions.

So the next few years will be very difficult for a lot of tax professionals, in that the tax job market simply can't be immune from what will be a depressed employment market. But how long will it continue? I have now revised my forecast from my blog article in June this year and I think confidence to generally start recruiting again will be in 2011-2012.

Gosh, I feel like a major doomster. On the slightly brighter side, I think the tax job market may benefit in 2 ways. People who concentrate on tax compliance and reporting will continue to be in demand. Also, the government are bound to raise taxes, and they will possibly do it through more corporate or indirect taxes, so there will remain the desire to have tax consultants (in practice) and/or in-house tax people looking at ways to reduce those increasing tax burdens.

That's my prediction, most of which is gut feel rather than any concrete evidence, but only time will tell the full story.

High flying ex-Head of Tax joins FTSE 100 board

2008-09-22T16:25:00.005+01:00

3i Group plc has announced that Julia Wilson, the group’s deputy finance director will join the board on 1st October 2008 as Finance Director designate. She will succeed Simon Ball, who has decided to resign as finance director, and he steps down from the board with effect from 30th November 2008. Wilson joined 3i in January 2006 as deputy finance director, with responsibility for the group’s finance, taxation and treasury functions. She was previously group director of corporate finance at Cable & Wireless, which she joined in 2000. She originally trained as an ACA in corporate tax with Arthur Andersen in London in the early-90s.

Read the full announcement on the 3i website

Head of Tax - some new appointments

2008-09-17T17:55:00.002+01:00

GlaxoSmithKline has recently appointed Helen Jones as their Senior VP Tax, based in the Brentford HQ. Helen is a very senior industry tax figure, joining GSK from Reuters where she was Group Head of Tax.

Laing O’Rourke, the UK’s largest privately owned construction company has recently appointed John Gearing as their new Head of Tax. John joins from Standard Bank in London, where he was International Tax Manager. John has an extensive commercial tax background, his previous roles include a successful 15 year period as Head of Tax in London for DKW, the investment bank.

Quintain Estates and Development PLC, the FTSE 250 property development group, has recently appointed Roy Flood as Head of Tax. He joins from property services company Erinaceous Group Plc, where he was Group Tax Manager. Roy has previously worked in tax for a number of other big name corporates, including BP, Whitbread and Cemex.

Tax Jobs - Weekly Highlights

2008-09-09T14:17:00.003+01:00

I think it is clear that industry now will be as flexible as possible for in-house tax execs regarding working hours and flexible / home working, within reason. Tax roles which are full time (5 days) with one day working from home are becoming easier to negotiate. The job I'm featuring this week is a VAT Manager role with a banking group, and I think worthy of a feature as the company will consider candidates on either a full time or 4 days per week basis.

VAT Manager - Banking Group
London £65,000 - £75,000 + Bonus + Bens
See More Details

Senior in-house Tax Man appointed as FD

2008-09-04T17:53:00.002+01:00

The board of Brinkley Mining Plc has appointed Mark Fresson as finance director of the company with immediate effect. Fresson is a chartered accountant, having qualified with Touche Ross in 1989. He spent ten years in various tax-related roles before joining Nomura’s principal finance group in 2000 as Head of Tax and Accounting. He formed part of the team that left Nomura to establish the Terra Firma Capital Partners private equity operation in 2002, where he ultimately held the position of senior tax and structuring counsel.

Henderson now looking at tax domicile change

2008-08-27T20:28:00.002+01:00

Source: TaxGrotto.com

In response to a press article published in the UK today, Henderson Group plc has confirmed that it is considering a potential change in its tax domicile from the UK to the Republic of Ireland.

A further update will be given with the release of the Group’s 2008 interim results at 07:00 (London time) on 28 August 2008.

Established in 1934, Henderson is a leading independent global asset management firm. The company provides its institutional, retail and high net-worth clients with access to skilled investment professionals representing a broad range of asset classes, including equities, fixed income, property and private equity.

SG comment: This news feed echos my news on Shire back in May 2008. Where will it all end, Alistair?