If you are interested in this candidate, please contact Andrew Wilson via email awilson@cerfinancial.co.uk or call on 0207 626 6065.

00357517

PROFILE:

A dedicated and quality-focused professional; recently enjoying rapid progression within a top 10 UK chartered accountancy firm. Collaborated with Tax staff and various other stakeholders on securing £multi-million savings on numerous projects. Strong team leader with excellent communication skills demonstrates in-depth analytical and strategic ability to facilitate effective and technical planning. Technically astute, with experience in the use of MS Office, Sage, Xero and whose competencies include:

SKILLS:

• Systems Implementation
• Balance Sheet Recs
• Financial Tax Analysis
• Statutory Accounting
• Statutory Tax Accounting
• Influencing and Negotiation
• Performance Monitoring
• Team Collaboration / Leadership
• Data Dissemination
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Change Management
• Relationship Building
• Advanced level of proficiency with Microsoft Excel [SUMIFs, basic Macros, VLOOKUP, IF, MATCH, Pivot Tables etc]
• Analytical and Presentational skills
• Technical Capabilities
• Data Analytics Tools: Alteryx, KNIME, Power BI
• Tax Compliance Software: Vertex, Avalara, Thomson Reuters ONESOURCE, Taxually
• ERP Systems: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics

EDUCATION:

2007 – 2010: University

BA (Hons.) Business Management & Finance; [2.1]

2004 – 2007: School

A Level Business Studies, Travel & Tourism, Economics

CAREER HISTORY:

2021 – Present

Professional Services and Accounting

VAT Associate Director

• Managed a portfolio of clients spanning various sectors, achieving over £900k in revenue and maintaining a 50% gross margin.
• Consulting clients in diverse industries regarding their VAT matters, fostering lasting client relationships.
• Worked in partnership with cross-functional teams (including IT, Finance, and Legal) to lead tax technology initiatives for a client, ensuring alignment of tax strategies with overarching business goals.
• Conducted VAT diagnostic reviews, identifying gaps and opportunities to improve tax compliance through technology and process transformation.
• Supported and managed the end-to-end delivery of tax technology projects, from scoping and requirements gathering to implementation and post-go-live support, such as Oracle.
• Provided advice on intricate technical issues, including deal fees, partial exemptions, and cross-border EU transactions.
• Skilled in conducting SAO reviews, tax risk assessments, and implementing VAT controls and procedures.
• Assisted in preparing and submitting error correction notifications to HMRC and handled subsequent correspondence with them.
• Collaborated with Senior Partners and coordinated with management to devise go-to-market business strategies.

Key achievements:

• Awarded for innovative idea contributing to business development.
• Representing a major retailer, pursued and secured a VAT refund of over £350K from HMRC for overpaid VAT on children's clothing. This success was achieved by deploying a VAT data analytics solution that improved VAT recovery by uncovering inefficiencies and identifying reclamation opportunities.
• Assist VAT partners with business growth and oversee / manage the National Indirect Tax pipeline.
• Appointed as the business development representative for the National practice to expand the Indirect Tax market among the firm's existing FTSE clients.
• Reduced VAT reporting cycle time by 30% through process re-engineering and automation solutions.
• Selected as a sub-group leader within the National practice to offer guidance and support in pursuing the practice’s growth strategy.

2019 – 2021

Professional Services

VAT Manager

• Advising clients in various industries on their VAT affairs and building sustainable client relationships.
• Liaising and working with affiliates in RSM International in assisting UK clients on VAT issues in foreign jurisdictions.
• Visiting clients on-site to carry out VAT reviews and health checks.
• Carrying out Making Tax Digital reviews for digital links and Brexit readiness reviews, recent Brexit work involved a supplier chain review on a pharmaceutical company.
• Providing in-house VAT training to large clients and the relevant stakeholders within the business.
• Review of VAT returns and compliance checks.
• Working with Senior VAT Partners and liaising with upper Management and other stakeholder to produce material for various business development ideas.
• Preparing and presenting monthly topical VAT issues to other service lines within the firm leading to new VAT work.
• Appointed as the Exam Training Manager for the Reading Tax team – advising and assisting on various exam issues and enrolling graduate in-takes onto exams and internal courses.
• Line managing junior members of staff – mentoring and carrying out half-yearly and yearly appraisals.
• Assisting HR in interviewing VAT graduates for the Reading Tax team.

Key Achievements:

• Selected for the High Performers Assessment Centre (HPAC) development programme in the first 6 months of joining the firm. This development programme is offered by the firm for a fast-track progression through the various ranks.
• Selected as one of seven people in the National VAT team as a high performer to join the Build our Future programme. This programme is focussed on the specific skills and leadership required to grow and develop the VAT team nationally.
• Material for business development ideas led to thousands of £s of new VAT work – this included designing and creating various VAT training modules that were sold to new clients as either a ‘off the shelf’ product or a ‘bespoke’ product with a yearly update service.

2015 – 2019

Accountants

VAT Assistant Manager

• Attending Tax meetings and liaising with external stakeholders to work on £multi-million savings on various projects.
• Keeping up to date with current VAT legislations by way of organising regular informal VAT discussions with the core VAT team on topical areas on VAT in all industries.
• Liaising of monthly VAT technical sessions with the core team.
• Preparing and coordinating monthly VAT updates to external and internal stakeholders.
• Visiting Tax chambers and liaising with Tax consultants to present cases for advice.
• Advising different areas of the business on VAT implications of the project work being currently undertaken in their teams.
• Visiting clients to carry out VAT reviews.
• Assisting clients in Making Tax Digital compliance – on-site visits to review VAT return processes and identifying gaps and providing recommendations.
• Acting as an intermediary for international clients by liaising with international tax firms to provide VAT advice to international clients for services rendered in foreign territories.

VAT Senior

• Managing a VAT compliance portfolio of over 100 returns a month.
• Meeting VAT deadlines set by HM Revenue and Customs on a quarterly basis.
• Preparing statutory EC Sales Lists for submission on a quarterly basis to HM Revenue and Customs.
• Assisted in audit checks by HM Revenue and Customs and working closely with them to handle Tax interrogations.
• Attending VAT inspections and assisting HM Revenue and Customs and clients.
• Interpreting and analysing legal business contracts from clients to ensure the VAT treatment is accurate.
• Advising on partial exemption matters and carrying out partial exemption reviews to advise on the appropriate method for the client.
• Advising and liaising with landed estate clients on option to tax affairs.

2011 – 2015

Telecommunications

VAT Analyst

• Dealing with and attending quarterly meetings with HM Revenue and Customs and building good relations with them.
• Compiling and putting together monthly VAT returns of over £10m.
• Collating information for a statutory Intrastat Supplementary Declaration, EC Sales List and Reverse Charge to HM Revenue and Customs each month under tight deadlines.
• Analysis of Output Tax charged across the Retail Estate consisting of 350 outlets in the UK and online customers also.
• Challenging in-house VAT Return processes by pushing back on stakeholders around the business to understand systems in place and improve transparency to help minimise time taken on preparing VAT Returns and develop accuracy.
• Evaluating and identifying the VAT on bad-debts on customer Post-Pay contracts and filing claims to HM Revenue and Customs to recover the VAT.
• Liaising closely with and building relations with outsourced companies.
• Authorising Duty Deferment requests by courier companies for import VAT on goods into the country by Hutchison 3G UK Limited.
• Collating and examining data on Exempt supplies made by Hutchison 3G UK Limited and accounting for these to HM Revenue and Customs via Partial Exemption adjustments.

Key Achievements:

• Success of HM Revenue and Customs Audit checks on Intrastat reporting; resulting in zero penalties and a high pass rate due to good work processes in place and accurate reporting.
• Success of year-end TAX-accounting Audit checks by PricewaterhouseCoopers [PwC]; resulting in clean tax-accounting due to high diligence and delivering quality work.
• Identified risks and opportunities to minimise potential risk of tax penalties.
• Researched and identified suitable data manipulation software on the market to reduce time to scrutinise data used for Input and Output Tax claims to HM Revenue and Customs.
• Secured £1.7m on Goodwill project by identifying overpaid VAT to HM Revenue and Customs; furthermore, saved £millions on various other VAT projects.
• Recognised underpaid Output Tax to HM Revenue and Customs and paying this over in a form of a Voluntary Disclosure to avoid incurring £millions penalties and a bad rating with the Revenue.
• Produced and recognised ways to reduce reconciling items on VAT Control Balance Sheet Rec and demonstrated upside hits to the P&L account.

References Available Upon Request

If you are interested in this candidate, please contact Andrew Wilson via email awilson@cerfinancial.co.uk or call on 0207 626 6065.

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