EQ are finalists for the Tax Team of the Year Award!

We are excited to announce that we have again been shortlisted for the Tax Team of the Year award category at the Business Insider Scottish Accountancy and Finance Awards 2019. Now in their 12th year, the awards recognise achievement in the accountancy and finance sector, rewarding quality, commitment and innovation.

We were required to illustrate the achievements of our highly-motivated and growing tax team throughout the last 12 months, its contribution to the Firm’s growth, and how these achievements have been recognised.

Working in a variety of specialist areas including healthcare, leisure and agriculture, each generating their unique tax challenges, we have also created sub-groups to focus on specific areas of tax. The level of demand for these services has led us to further strengthen our tax offering with specialist tax teams covering areas from employer solutions and private client tax, to transactions tax, research and development, property taxation and international tax.

Our brand new, dedicated tax website has been tailor-made to not only give clients and contacts an easy way to search for tax focused advice with real-life examples, but to showcase the fantastic, varied tax expertise, experience and excellence which EQ provides to its growing client base.

One of the highest growth areas has been generated by the Research & Development Tax team, generating over £16M of client savings since 2012, and securing over 300 claims. Meanwhile, the specialist Transactions Tax team has provided innovative tax planning solutions for around 45 business acquisitions and disposals, achieving over £75M of deal based corporate finance work in the past 12 months. Our Employer Solutions team is recognised as one of Scotland’s leading providers of employee ownership advice and our Private Client tax team has delivered numerous innovative solutions in succession and inheritance tax.

Overall, our tax team’s achievements have been highly instrumental in the firm’s overall growth of more than 8% within the last year, with up to 9 out of every 10 new clients joining EQ due to the expertise the firm demonstrates in this area.

David Morrison, Head of EQ Taxation, commented;

“To be nominated again for this prestigious award is a great accolade for the firm and testament to the skills and efforts of our team. EQ is all about people and our client facing staff are all highly trained in taxation, with EQ adding additional training way beyond the traditional accountancy training contract.

As each client has three points of contact within EQ, we are able to combine our technical expertise with detailed knowledge about the client to ensure that opportunities are not missed and our advice is commercial and relevant to our clients. We have achieved significant growth in the profitability of our firm, specifically over the last three years, and much of this is down to the tax expertise delivered by the whole EQ team. Although we always ensure that these achievements are recognised internally, it’s particularly gratifying to have them acknowledged externally. To be a finalist in such highly-respected awards is a reward for the commitment and collaborative approach which my colleagues put into practice each day.”

The awards will be presented in Glasgow on 20 June 2019 – fingers crossed!