Tax Advisory Insights from a True Accounting Tax Specialist

Heather Self

Heather Self is an experienced corporate tax professional who enjoys working with clients to bring them pragmatic solutions to their tax issues. She read maths at university and still loves the appeal of pure logic. She has been involved with tax for over 30 years and seen a lot of changes in that time. She has worked for the Big 4, in industry, for HMRC and in a law firm, so has seen tax from all angles.

Heather is passionate about communicating and helping people to understand tax. She often comments on tax for the BBC and was one of the founders of the Women in Tax group 4 years ago. @WomenInTax now has branches in about 10 cities across the UK with links to a number of international tax groups. Shownotes:

• What separates a good accounting tax adviser from a great one
• The importance in tax of understanding the client’s attitude to risk
• The increasingly specialist areas of tax for accounting firms – it’s impossible to know everything
• How tax has changed over the years and become ever more complex
• People get taxed by legislation and untaxed by concession – so hard to interpret
• HMRC manuals used to be confidential and top secret, but are now in the public domain
• How AI is providing tools to search data and flag up anomalies, though human conversations are still required
• The impact of technology on tax advisory firms
• The biggest challenges tax advisory firms face, especially in recognising the importance of compliance
• Some tax accountants want to show off their tax knowledge, but the client doesn’t care – they just want
• solid advice they can make decisions on
• The big difference between working as an accountant in practice and in industry
• An example of how to make the data sharing process more efficient between accountant and client
• Tips for pricing complex advisory, the first step being a high level feasibility study
• Why mistakes might sometimes be made in pricing and delivering tax advisory
• Advice for accountants considering a career in tax advisory
• What accounting firms need to do to attract better millennial talent
• Compliance has become commoditized in the accounting world like conveyancing has become in the legal world
• The complex area of tax evasion and avoidance is not properly reported, which makes it more sensational
• The joy of being able to explain complex things in a way that makes sense to people
• Great charities – Refugees at Home, Tax Aid and Tax Help for Older People
• What would happen if all MPs did their own tax returns using only HMRC’s helpline?

'Compliance has become commoditized in the accounting world like conveyancing has become in the legal world' says tax expert @hselftax of @BlickRothenberg on the #Accounting Influencers Podcast #accountex #advisory #accountinginsight

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