The end of June saw the arrival of Jack Purkis into the expanding Bates Weston tax team as Assistant Manager. Jack is looking forward to broadening his experience in tax advisory work. Jack has focussed on personal tax compliance in his roles to date but thrives on uncomplicating tax issues for clients.
Craig Simpson, Tax Partner at Bates Weston reflects on a successful 2022/23 and his plans for the coming year.
“The focus of the business remains simple; to scope work and quote clearly, follow up by doing what we say we are going to do, and to communicate well. Many firms favour focusing on very specific areas of tax. We focus on a joined up, wholistic approach and continue to see an influx of Family Office work as the number of mixed tax advisors in the market diminishes. We are well placed to provide insight to wealthy families and private business in a way that reduces the challenges of financial complexity.
Bates Weston Tax have deliberately created a network of contacts in legal and financial services who we can introduce to clients. The focus again is on service. In my own interactions with service providers and trades people, it is so often difficult to get great service. Our goal is to provide coordinated, highly technically skilled advice put as simply as we can.”
The Bates Weston Tax Team also champions “working from anywhere”.
Craig comments:
“The use of technology helps to move projects along at a pace that used to be more difficult when everyone travelled into London to meet on transaction work. It does make me wonder why we used to do that. An expensive day out and so much time wasted. Now we can focus on the points quickly and efficiently. Beth Noy (Tax Manager) lives and works in Wales and this has been a great success in delivering a work life balance for her, as well as making sure we can be efficient in delivering projects and saving the clients time from travelling to meetings.
We do still meet regularly with clients at our office base in Derby. There are certainly times where a face to face meeting is important in building the relationship with the client. We are flexible in our approach, placing clients preferences first and using technology where we can.”
When asked about the outlook for Bates Weston Tax, Craig expects 2023/24 to be more of the same.
“The expanded team are busy and there are many opportunities to win work. Family Office is something of a specialist area and we look forward to helping more clients in this area.”
If you would like to speak to Craig about our Family Office Service or any aspect of tax advisory work, please do get in touch.