How did you end up in tax?
I was seduced by the Inland Revenue’s recruitment promise of running my own tax district within a few years (which I did). Someone once described the independence afforded to old-fashioned district inspectors as akin to being self-employed without the worries: and they weren’t far wrong.
Who in tax do you most admire?
My first district inspector Geoffrey Moore. He never saw tax as a conflict between ‘us’ and ‘them’ but regarded himself and his local accountants as involved in a common endless struggle to make a flawed tax system work in a pragmatic and sensible way to the benefit of all. It’s sad that HMRC nowadays sometimes seem to have an entirely different approach keen to catch out taxpayers (regarded as all by definition crooks) on any point they can.
What advice would you give to someone entering the profession?
Think very carefully. The complexity of...
