Biography:

Agnieszka Chamera is a lawyer and licensed tax adviser with extensive experience in tax advisory and consultancy on business transformations, as well as the performance of due diligence analyses.

Ms. Chamera conducts compulsory training for statutory auditors in law and taxes, organised by PKF Consult.

She is an author of the Poland country guide in Tolley’s Global Mobility/Employment Taxes.

Biography:

Alan Powell is a specialist excise duties consultant, formerly a Policy official within HMCE’s HQ teams and a Big 4 tax Team.

He is an excise duties advisor to the Chartered Institute of Taxation, honorary advisor to the UK Warehousing Association, and founded the British Distillers Alliance as a conduit for consultation with, and representation to, Government bodies and to assist and advise on technical matters.

He is a Chartered Tax Advisor, a Fellow of the Institute of Indirect Taxation, and sits on the high-level Joint Alcohol and Tobacco Consultative group with HMRC and the Indirect Taxes Committee of the CIOT.

In his 65th year, he is trying to retire.

Biography:

Wouter Brackx is a Partner with Moore Belgium. For over twenty years, he has been giving VAT advice to domestic and international clients on operational business matters and restructurings.  Prior to joining Moore Belgium in December 2020, Wouter worked with PwC (2000 to 2010) and was a Partner with PKF-VMB (2011-2020).

Wouter primarily works for dynamic businesses/groups with international activities, mainly in the areas of manufacturing & distribution,  leasing, services and technology.  He is pragmatic, hands-on and has a strong solution focus, based on know-how.

Wouter is an expert in VAT planning (avoiding unnecessary VAT costs/registrations), VAT risk identification & mitigation, VAT cash flow optimizations (supply chain), VAT automation and international VAT compliance coordination. He also provides assistance in obtaining advance rulings from the Belgian Ruling Commission. He and his team also have significant experience in due diligence work for private equity funds.

Biography:

Brian Ogilvie FCCA CTA is a Chartered Certified Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser, based in Brighton and Hove. He worked for a number of small and medium sized general practice firms in the Sussex area for over 15 years before establishing his own practice.

In addition to practice work, Brian is also a freelance tax lecturer for, among others, ACCA, ICAEW, CIOT and leading accounting firm Moore Stephens LLP. He has also presented e-CPD and webinar training courses, and acted as examiner for the CIOT.

Brian demonstrates draws on extensive experience of providing tax advice on various areas affecting the SME sector, using illustrative case studies to outline changes in tax legislation and practice.

Biography:

Rob - CTA (Fellow) - is a cross-tax advisor with a particular focus on property tax planning, and business structure planning for OMB’s. He provides tax advice to other accounting firms, balancing commerciality, ethics, and understanding complexity.

His 32+ years of experience start at the Inland Revenue in Hull. After completing his ATT and CTA with PKF, he subsequently worked at KPMG and UHY prior to managing the business tax team as a director at Garbutt + Elliott. Rob is now Tax Director at the independent tax consultancy, Crane Dale Tax.

He is a regular author for Tolley publications, including Taxation magazine, and Tolley annuals covering Capital Allowances, Property Tax, Tax Planning , and Taxwise annuals. He is also consultant editor of the online Tolley Guidance OMB module. He contributes as a virtual member to the CIOT Property Tax and OMB technical committees.

Rob works remotely from Vancouver in Canada.

Biography:

Will Sweeney is a Senior R&D Manager in the Innovation & R&D team at Menzies where he looks after many of their largest clients. He has extensive experience of helping entrepreneurial clients to optimise their tax position throughout the innovation lifecycle by advising on issues including R&D tax credits, RDEC, Creative Sector reliefs and the Patent Box.

In addition to his tax knowledge, Will started his career as an engineer and has worked with numerous technology, manufacturing and property sector clients. He brings a wealth of industry experience to his clients, helping him to understand the specific technical details of work undertaken by clients.

Will contributes to TolleyGuidance Corporate module.

Biography:

Moore and Smalley's East Midlands office is headed up by Nick Stevenson who looks after a wide variety of clients. He has a strong background in medical service clients, including looking after over 100 individual GP's and over 25 practices, over 40 hospital consultants and GP locums, and a total client list of over 300. Nick is currently the head of the MHA healthcare sector group, an association of nine independent accountancy firms across the UK, and the ICAEW SIG committee. He has particular responsibility for liaising with NHS Employers, local LMC's and the Health & Social Care Information Centre. Nick is also involved in the Primary Care Development Centre for Nottingham and Derbyshire where he provides support and training to local primary care providers. He regularly presents at events on an array of topics including maximising practice profitability, strategic planning and tax considerations.

Biography:

Dora is a Certified Public Accountant with 25 years’ experience. She joined PKF in 1998, and since then has continuously worked on a client-based approach, focusing on quality and accuracy.

She has dealt with high profile clients and has a thorough understanding of corporate issues, business processes and customer needs, advising on a wide range of tax issues. Her expertise in assurance and tax compliance extends from the hotel and tourism sector to retail businesses.

Biography:

Duncan has nearly 30 years experience in corporate tax, working for a number of Big 4 firms and in the UK, Guernsey and The Netherlands.  He has always had a particular interest in international tax issues.

ATT, CTA and ADIT qualified, he has been a full-time tax lecturer since 2007 and joined Tolley in 2016 after spending nine years at EY in their Corporate Tax Training department.  Whilst at EY he was the lead tutor on international tax and successfully completed his ADIT qualification.

He is an engaging lecturer and a firm believer that ADIT represents a hugely valuable qualification in a globalised world.

He teaches ATT, CTA and ADIT including experience of teaching ADIT in Cyprus.

Biography:

David Dorgan has established himself as one of the leading lawyers in Jersey combining strengths in private client and trusts, corporate and finance work.

He has a significant specialism in private and commercial trusts and foundations, focusing on providing technical advice on their establishment and on-going administration which is tailored for the practical and commercial requirements of clients. He has extensive experience of drafting bespoke and complex trust instruments and foundation regulations for high and ultra-high net worth individuals and families, preparing bespoke will trusts and providing documentation for SPV, philanthropy, charitable and non-charitable purposes.

David also has considerable experience in corporate and finance matters, in particular transactions involving trustees refinancing or selling and/or purchasing trust fund property and/or high net worth individuals or families entering into entrepreneurial ventures. He has also provided opinions to foreign courts, foreign revenue authorities and institutional lenders on complex issues relating to trust and corporate issues.

David is ranked by Chambers and Partners and Legal500 saying that he “is particularly timely in the delivery of his services, and has a keen technical and business acumen, ensuring advice is appropriate and cost-effective.” and that “He has a pragmatic and commercial approach on difficult matters and is very good at understanding the issues and coming up with reasonable solutions…His drafting is excellent and he can also liaise with other advisers and third parties with a good commercial view for the client.”

David graduated with a Master of Laws degree and qualified as a Jersey Solicitor in 2006, as a Jersey Advocate in 2008 and as a Jersey Notary Public in 2011. He is a member of the Jersey Finance Working Groups for Trusts, Foundations and Charities, is a full member of STEP and holds the Islamic Finance Qualification from CISI.

Biography:

Head of the Tax at PKF Francis Clark with particular responsibility for family businesses and professional partnerships, property and international tax services.

Considerable expertise in business structuring advice and long term planning with a particular focus on capital gains tax (entrepreneurs' relief, Enterprise Investment Scheme and investor's relief) and inheritance tax business property relief and agricultural property relief.

Biography:

Emilie advises companies and senior individuals on all aspects of employment law, contentious and non contentious. She is particularly experienced in dealing with complex employment tribunal litigation for employer clients, as well as providing practical advice on a range of day to day employment and HR issues.

Biography:

Patrick Cannon is an experienced direct access tax barrister specialising in taxation advice and advocacy.

In 2021, Patrick launched Cannon Chambers, a client-focused barrister set without the high overheads of a presence in one of London’s Inns of Court.

He read law at the London School of Economics and the University of Oxford before admission as a solicitor in 1984. He was called to the Bar in 2003.

Alongside his L.B, BCL (Oxon) CTA (Fellow) qualifications, he is licensed by the Bar Standards Board to accept public access work and conduct litigation - and has written Tolley's Stamp Taxes and Tolley's Disclosure of Tax and VAT Avoidance Schemes.

Biography:

Stephen leads the Employee Incentives team at Mishcon de Reya. He has significant experience advising on the strategy, design, implementation and compliance of UK and global employee incentive arrangements, including long term incentive plans, all-employee share plans, HM Revenue and Customs tax-advantaged plans, management incentive plans and growth share and joint ownership plans. Stephen also advises on all related corporate, tax and trusts aspects, corporate governance issues, disclosure of directors' remuneration and share dealing regulations.

In addition, Stephen works with companies on the impact that corporate actions have on their incentive arrangements and has acted on many public takeovers, mergers and acquisition, public to private transactions, initial public offerings, capital raising activities and private equity deals.

Stephen also advises on contractual disputes and tax investigations relevant to incentives arrangements.

Stephen works with a wide range of businesses across several industry sectors, including financial services, natural resources, entertainment, aerospace and transport and for companies that are listed on the London Stock Exchange, AIM and overseas exchanges, together with private equity houses, private companies and owner-managed businesses.

Biography:

Liz started her career with EY in Bristol in 1992, where she passed the AAT exams and then trained as a Certified Accountant. Once qualified, she became involved in the recruitment and internal training of graduate accounting and tax trainees at EY. She joined BPP Bristol as a tutor in 1999 and passed CTA in May 2007, winning The Ian Walker Medal for the highest mark in Paper I.

Over her last 5 years at BPP Liz managed Bristol Tax Courses, taught across a broad range of qualifications and subject areas and wrote materials for CTA, ATT and ICAEW exams.

Liz joined Tolley Exam Training in 2012 as a tutor and a writer. Liz is head of the Bristol Centre and provides an unrivalled level of service to local clients and students, and manages the learning resource nationally.

Liz still loves being in the classroom, and teaches across the CTA and ATT qualifications.

Biography:

Phil Vernon is the Head of Business Rates projects at PwC, and has been advising clients on local property tax issues for the last 15 years. He was formerly Head of Business Rates for Liberata UK, who provided an outsourced revenues service for Sheffield City Council.

At PwC, Phil provides public and private sector clients with advice on complex rating matters, provides legal analysis on points of law and advises clients on how rating practice interacts with rating law. Phil also assists corporate clients in their rating appeals, up to and including Valuation Tribunals and the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber).

Phil has been an Honors member of the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV) since 2002 and has 30 years experience in local taxation law and practice.

Biography:

John is a Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Advisor, who trained with one of EY’s predecessor firms. That training contract was followed by a long career at EY, specialising in integrated US/UK income, capital, and estate tax planning.

Part of that practice at EY involved advising international professional partnerships conducting business in the UK. Expertise in this specialist area led to John being recruited to go ‘in-house’ with one of the leading US law firms and spending eight years as Regional Tax Director (EMEA) for White & Case. This was followed by a return to public practice, first with Frank Hirth and latterly with Blick Rothenberg.

John is a member of both HMRC’s Expat Tax Forum and HMRC’s Expat/NIC Strategy Group. He has lectured extensively on US tax topics. His publishing credits include being a member of the writing team on “A Guide to the UK/US Tax Treaty” (LexisNexis 2003), and a past contributor to the ‘Working in the UK’ and ‘Working Overseas’ sections of Tolley’s Tax Planning.  John has also had articles published in “Tax Planning International Review”, “Tax Management International Journal” and “The BNA Daily Tax Report”.

Outside work, John’s interests include photography, fly fishing, playing tournament bridge and learning to play the piano.

Biography:

Jenny Tragner is a Director and Head of Policy at ForrestBrown, leading the technical approach for the firm on all aspects of R&D tax relief.

She is an experienced chartered accountant and ATT fellow with a wealth of expertise in all aspects of R&D tax. She specialises in supporting businesses with complex cases involving R&D reliefs, including dispute resolution and tax advisory projects.

She began her career at KPMG in 2002 and has specialised in R&D tax for the past 15 years. In this time, she has advised many of the UK’s most innovative companies.

Jenny is an expert in R&D tax policy and has contributed to numerous consultations on R&D tax relief over the course of her career.

She co-authored the Tolley’s Tax Digest on R&D tax relief and is a regular contributor to publications including Taxation and Bloomberg Tax. In November 2022, Jenny was invited to give evidence to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee inquiry into the incentive. She also contributes to TolleyGuidance Corporate module.