Paul Moreels - Director, KPMG
Paul has over 17 years' of experience with KPMG and leads the Employment Solutions practice in Higher Education and the public sector. He provides advice to many Universities and the sector on subjects such as Off-payroll working, Stipends, National Minimum Wage, CIS, and all aspects of employer compliance. He loves working with Universities so much he has taken to visiting them on weekends (Don’t worry, he’s attending open days with his son!)
Kerry Sykes - Legend, Big For Tax
At first they were afraid, they were petrified, didn't think they could live with taxes on their site, then Kerry and Big for Tax came along, and they were strong and they knew how to get along. With a 30-year career devoted to tax in the higher education sector, with time in HMRC, University of Cambridge, KPMG and now Big for Tax, Kerry definitely knows his onions as well as having detailed insight into how the HE sector works and where tax fits into that.
Carol Varns - VAT Manager, University of Sheffield
After a number of years as an HMRC VAT officer, I saw the light and joined Deloitte and then Grant Thornton working with HEis and charity clients in the not for profit sector. I achieved a career hat-trick when I joined the University Tax Team as their in-house VAT Manager in 2014 where, at the time, there were four staff. Due to the increase in turnover and tax complexity the team has now doubled and we're as busy as ever! I admit I love VAT because although it is based on law it's how it’s applied where all the work happens and many quite bonkers infamous cases - is a Pringle a crisp or a Jaffa Cake a biscuit?
In my spare time I'm busy with a family of 3 adult daughters, 2 grandsons, 2 dogs, my increasingly retired peer group and my painful (particularly this year!) with some occasional highs, allegiance to Sheffield United FC - The Blades!
David Miller - The Customs People
David has been involved in the Customs field for 36 years, the last 25 of these have been as a Customs & VAT Consultant. David assists all types of international businesses so that they make the most of the Customs rules so they neither under or, more importantly, overpay duties. David advises a number of universities on import and export issues, especially with regard to import
reliefs and temporary movements of goods. In the lead up to and since Brexit, he has provided considerable support to the HE sector via a series of BUFDG Time to Talk sessions.
Susan Brown - Senior Manager, KPMG
Su is a core member of KPMG UK’s global mobility Higher Education Sector team with 25 years of experience in global mobility.
Su supports our national practice in the provision of global mobility services across the sector. She has significant experience helping universities identify their international employees, delivering workshops and training for internal stakeholders, budgeting for overseas tax and social security costs, developing tax policies and principles, managing double taxation where employees work in both the UK and overseas, and advice and set up of overseas payrolls and associated compliance. Su is KPMG’s UK specialist in relation to Chinese Joint Ventures having advised many Universities in this regard over the years.
Claire Jopson - Director, KPMG
Claire leads KPMG UK’s global mobility services across the Higher Education Sector.
She has 19 years of experience in global mobility.
Claire has considerable experience working with many universities helping them successfully manage the risks and implications international employees bring. This has involved supporting a number of universities in obtaining the senior stakeholder buy-in required but also ensuring their strategy and approach is ‘fit for purpose’ for their organisation. This has become increasingly important within the sector, as internationalisation is a key part of the wider strategy in attracting and retaining global talent and students. Claire has been instrumental in helping universities define and develop their policy for successfully managing international employees, ensuring it is aligned with university priorities. She has also helped embed new process and governance frameworks.
Jennifer Lee - Senior Manager, PwC
Jennifer Lee is Senior Manager at PwC, based in Reading but working with HE institutions nationally. Jen is a qualified Accountant and Chartered tax Advisor, and has 14 years of VAT experience. Jen advises Universities on a range of VAT issues, and has recently been working with a number of clients in managing overseas VAT/ GST risk and registration obligations, as a result in increased online learning.
Chris Bridgeman - Head of Taxation, Kings College London
Chris has over 3 decades in taxation, the last 12 in universities and at King’s since 2018.
Chris Rowe - VAT Partner, BDO
Chris leads the Midlands VAT team at BDO so has a varied and diverse client portfolio. Chris also leads the national indirect tax technology offering at a partner level, working very closely with Amit. At BDO we support lots of clients with tax automation and to ensure their systems upgrades and implementations are a success.
Amit Dev - VAT Technology Associate Director, BDO
Amit started his career in tech, moving into VAT advisory within the Big four where universities were amongst his client portfolio. Throughout his career, automation has played a central role and has been leading automation based projects in-house and for clients, in practice, for the past 18 years. Since his move to BDO over 6 years ago, Amit has helped build the Tax Technology practice and is a tech leader for the UK firm.
Neil Turner - Senior VAT Advisor, University of Manchester
Neil spent 13 years in VAT advisory at Deloitte, before moving to the University in 2014. He is relatively new to tax technology and automation, but is a veteran of one attempted Oracle upgrade. He is part of the National Tax Group, and was BUFDG Tax Joke of the Year winner 2019 [BUFDG edit: a prestigious award].
