Kathryn Anne Prankard - Howell's 1981 - 1984

Tax adviser

My own career path

Like many others I believe, I went through school having no idea which career I should choose.  At A Level I studied science subjects and left school with three grades ‘A’.  At university I chose to study Mathematics and attained a first class honours degree. 

Both when I was 18 and when I was preparing to leave university, the careers department could only suggest three possible careers1 to a mathematician - teacher, accountant, or actuary, the latter reputedly earning the most money, and the former the most holiday.  I chose the middle one, as I was attracted to the opportunities for meeting people, and the choice of specialist areas in which one could move on to work.

I began a training contract with one of the then “Big 6” accountancy firms; now called KPMG.  I trained as a Chartered Accountant but soon discovered an interest in tax and in particular how I could help businesses and individuals to minimise or control this cost.

A career in tax – working for an international accountancy firm

I began my tax career preparing tax returns for companies and businesses to send to the Inland Revenue, showing their annual taxable profits.  Special legal rules allowed for certain reductions of their tax to be claimed, and I enjoyed my vision of being a “robin hood” helping my vulnerable and deserving clients to avoid overpaying taxes.  I progressed to preparing tax returns for larger and more complex national and international groups of companies, and I became sufficiently experienced that after 3 years I was asked to change my role to become a tax adviser.  This meant I became involved in the exciting world of financial deals, sometimes travelling to the City of London, working with our clients’ lawyers to help with business acquisitions and sales, property and major asset purchases, and finance-raising, advising how best to organise these transactions so that where possible any immediate or future tax burden was minimised. 

Over the coming years after qualifying as a Chartered Tax Adviser, I specialised in various tax areas including cross-border international tax advice which took me to conferences in Switzerland, meeting colleagues from across the world.  I made many contacts whom I would call upon for advice on their country’s tax rules as they might affect my clients’ businesses there or a secondment of employees to those countries.  I have worked with human resources departments to design tax efficient executive remuneration packages for company directors, including designing arrangements for offering company shares to employees.  I have given tax advice to growing companies preparing for listing their shares on the London Stock Exchange, and on the other end of the scale, I have worked with owners of smaller businesses to help them to retire and sell their business, or to pass it on to their family.  In each case minimising the tax burden  can have a profound effect on future financial growth and success.

A year ago I was offered an opportunity to spend six months working at KPMG’s London office in the City.  Living there during this time, initially in Covent Garden, I was able to work with some of the top professionals within the firm, to widen my experience of working on international assignments, and in the evenings to enjoy London’s entertainment.

During the course of my career to date I have often put together and presented training courses for colleagues and for clients, and have written newspaper and magazine articles on tax subjects.   

Many firms support charitable and community work, and for example whilst at KPMG I once spent a day with colleagues helping to dig a path around a nature reserve on the banks of the River Severn.

Working for a smaller local accountancy firm

The training and progression opportunities with the large international accountancy firms are boundless if you have the enthusiasm and drive and energy to meet the challenge.  However, with a young family to bring up on my own, and with growing travel commitments in my work I took the decision earlier this year to move to become a senior director of strategic tax at a local firm of accountants with approximately 40 employees. 

Increasingly, smaller firms are widening their range of services to include more specialist services such as tax planning, and the nature of my work and my role has continued much as before although now primarily directed to the issues of relevance to local private owner managed businesses.

Many of the smaller accountancy firms are now offering training contacts to accountancy and tax students, and students can quickly gain a broad business experience of working on all aspects of accountancy, tax and audit for private businesses and their owner/managers.

Summing up

I can recommend a career in a tax advisory role for its potential variety of work, its intellectual challenge, its opportunities to meet interesting people, the continuous change brought about by each year’s Budget and Finance Act and the ever changing local and world economies, and its flexibility for you to get involved in the fast lane of the international financial world and /or to accommodate family life.  

Requirements for embarking on a tax career in public practice

Academic requirements continue to be high, though the subjects studied at university and at A Level are usually not required to be business or finance related.   It helps if you can demonstrate some business experience, and a general interest and knowledge of the financial world.  For a career in a tax advisory role, it is almost essential that you attain qualification as a Chartered Tax Adviser.  Lists of firms offering relevant training contracts can be obtained from the Chartered Institute of Taxation.  As well as accountancy firms, some legal firms look to employ tax specialists. 

For the larger firms, much information on their requirements of prospective employees and their ethos, and sometimes employment application forms, can be found on their web site.  Larger and local firms will often be represented at university careers fairs. 

There are also many employment agencies, which you can approach to help you to find employment with a firm of accountants or tax advisers.  However as the firm will be required to pay a finder’s fee to such an agency if they take you on, you may find yourself in a better position to be offered employment if you write to your chosen firms direct with a copy of your CV (Curriculum Vitae).

Other tax careers

There are many other tax-related careers that may be pursued, and indeed many areas of tax in which to specialise.  Larger companies will often have an in-house tax department to deal with their own affairs, for example, or you might follow a legal route and become a tax barrister.  You may choose to get involved in the public sector, working for the Inland Revenue or assisting with the formulation of tax policy and law.   Further information on the choices may be found by contacting the Chartered Institute of Taxation, or investigating their web site at www.tax.org.uk.