Julia Ascott - Employment Taxes Specialist - BUFDG
julia@bufdg.ac.uk
Patrick Crookes - Tax Director - Mazarspatrick.crookes@mazars.co.uk
Patrick has over 15 years’ experience in Employment Taxes, specialising and assisting clients in particular with CIS, CJRS and IR35. Patrick is actively involved with the BUFDG Payroll & Expenses Group both at a national and regional level. He has been a regular speaker on Employment Tax matters at the annual BUFDG conference. He also sits on the CIOT’s Examinations team and Employment Taxes Technical Committee.
Patrick has extensive experience advising HEI clients on Employment Taxes issues including, setting up policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the off-payroll workers legislation, helping HEI organisations undertake employment status for tax assessments, advising on the tax treatment of stipends, honorariums, bursaries, royalties from intellectual property, and reviewing expense policies and benefit in kind arrangements, including the implementation of salary sacrifice schemes for ultra-low emission cars
Daida Hadzic - EMA Social Security Lead - KPMGhadzic.daida@kpmg.com
Daida has 20 years of experience working as subject matter expert for a variety of topics in labour mobility in the EU, including social security, posted workers, tax transparency, and compliance processes.
For 13 years, Daida worked for the Danish government where she functioned as Denmark's representative in the EU- Commission working with adoption and implementation of legislation etc. As the head of the international department for social security in the Danish government, Daida has provided advice about international social security across sectors, including universities.
Her global knowledge role in KPMG allows her to draw on her vast knowledge and experience and support local KPMG offices and advise companies, public administrations, and international organisations across the world.
Claire Hamlin - VAT Director - Grant Thorntonclaire.a.hamlin@uk.gt.com
Claire specialises in advising not-for-profit clients and leads this sector nationally for Grant Thornton’s VAT practice, working across the North region on a variety of clients including housing providers, universities, colleges and charities.
Claire is a Chartered Tax Adviser and has worked in VAT for over 15 years.
She regularly presents at sector events including the British University Finance Directors Group’s (BUFDG) regional tax meetings, the Association of Colleges (AoC) and is a member of the Charity’s Tax Group’s VAT Expert Group.
Some examples of projects and activities which she had led in the education sector include:
• Advice on structuring development projects from a VAT efficient perspective
• Maximising VAT reliefs available (including in relation to property developments and for charities)
• Advice on catering functions including obtaining refunds from HMRC
• Advice on overseas agents
• Agreement of non-business and partial exemption special methods with HMRC
Laura Hutton - Director, Global Mobility Services - KPMG
laura.hutton@kpmg.co.uk
Laura leads KPMG UK's International Social Security and Posted Worker Services team.
She has 22 years' experience of working in global mobility, both as a mobility generalist and as a specialist. Laura advises clients regularly on the social security risks associated with internationally mobile employees. She also reviews and optimises social security costs, and advises on the preservation of social security benefits where mobile employees have to switch between countries' systems. In the past few years, Laura has been helping employers get to grips with the complex area of Posted Worker compliance, establishing when a mobile employee is a posted worker, designing processes to manage the administrative tasks required for posted workers and advising on the employment law compliance obligations.
Katrina Gogarty - VAT Manager - Grant Thorntonkatrina.c.gogarty@uk.gt.com
Katrina is a Chartered Tax Adviser who has worked in VAT for eight years.
She has a wide range of experience in both the public and private sector and works closely with Claire on a number of universities, charities and housing clients.
Katrina’s recent projects and activities undertaken in the education sector include:
• Advising on a range of property projects seeking to both increase VAT efficiency and mitigate unnecessary costs
• Advising on international VAT requirements
• Delivering bespoke VAT training
• Efficiency reviews to assist with getting ready for Making Tax Digital
• Guidance on partial exemption and agreeing new, more favourable special methods with HMRC
Emily-Rose Jones - Indirect Tax Senior Manager - KPMGemily-rose.jones@kpmg.co.uk
According to Google, Emily-Rose is a Global Media Senior Executive at NET-A-PORTER, but unfortunately that one wasn't available, so we're stuck with Education VAT and technology enthusiast, Emily from KPMG. With over a decade's experience working with her university clients on a whole range of VAT advisory work, Emily has more recently also worked with her clients on tax engine logic design.
It has come as a bit of a surprise the fact that defining logic comes almost naturally, given the fact that she wrote her own CV and had to google her own name!
Maximilian Kompart - Indirect Tax Manager - KPMGmaximilian.kompart@kpmg.co.uk
Max is an Indirect Tax Manager with a specialism in the education sector, advising HE clients for over five years.
He is a core part of KPMG's education VAT team, advising clients on a range of topics, including partial exemption, charitable reliefs, capital projects and particularly on the VAT liability of research projects.
Outside of the education sector, he works with an e-commerce provider, who promises clients "simple solutions" to enter new markets.
Wendy started off working in audit for Coopers and Lybrand in London and later in Hong Kong. Upon leaving the profession she came back to the UK only to leave it almost immediately for Holland where she joined TNT Post in an international finance role. She came to Scotland upon marrying a Geordie and took up a tax role at the University of St Andrews in 2014, much to her surprise she became Head of Tax and Treasury in 2018. Since 2021 she has been seconded to the University’s Finance Improvement Project (FIP) leading the income to cash and tax implementation from the University side. When not working she likes nothing more than a long walk in the beautiful Fife countryside.David Miller - The Customs Peopledavid.miller@thecustomspeople.com
David has been involved in the Customs field for more than 30 years, the last 2 decades 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 and has developed BUFDG's latest e-learning courses on Import Principles.
Paul Moreels - Director of Employment Solutions - KPMG
paul.moreels@kpmg.co.uk
Paul has over 16 years' of experience with KPMG and leads the Employment Solutions practice in Higher Education and the public sector. He provides advice to many Universities on subjects such as Off-payroll working, Stipends, National Minimum Wage, CIS, and all aspects of employer compliance. His most intriguing questions come from Universities (Where else can you be asked about a Juggler, a Clown, an Artist and a Poet and the punchline not be a joke). Since joining KPMG Paul has also spent his time trying to escape work, at one point leading a team which swam to France. Ultimately the excitement of employment taxes keeps him coming back.
Gerry Myton - Partner & Head of Indirect Tax - H W Fishergmyton@hwfisher.co.uk
Gerry Myton leads HW Fisher’s indirect taxation team and specialises in not only VAT but also duty matters. He began his career with Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise before moving into positions within UK Top 40 accountancy firms. Gerry is a specialist across a range of sectors, notably not for profit, retail, property and construction, international supply chains, e-commerce and import/export.
He has extensive experience assisting organisations in navigating the complexities of VAT with particular emphasis on organisations setting up and trading in the UK and from the UK into Europe. He is skilled at mitigating VAT liabilities and identifying cash-saving opportunities from all stages of business development, from initial registration to business restructuring and trading internationally.
Jason Norris - Director - Deloittejanorris@deloitte.co.ukJason is a Director within the International Mobility business at Deloitte, specialising in tax and social security advice regarding mobile employees. Jason leads the delivery of Mobility services to Deloitte's HE clients.
Andrew Pick - Director - KPMG
Andy leads our Public Sector Indirect Tax team in the South, with over 15 years experience supporting Universities, NHS Trusts, Housing Associations, Councils and Charities. Andy's ability to advise on all aspects of public sector VAT and his wider understanding of other taxes enables him to lead on large and complex projects, increasingly including collaboration between different organisations. Andy particularly enjoys providing VAT advice as a distraction from his main job of 'managing' both of his young son's football teams and his role as a school governor for a local Primary.
Caroline Jones - Employment Tax Director - BDO
caroline.jones@bdo.co.uk
Caroline started her career as an inspector with HMRC and has worked for 26 years in Big Four accountancy firms. Immediately before joining BDO in November 2019, she spent a year working as the Employment Tax Specialist for BUFDG. Whilst there, as well as providing general employment tax related support, she worked extensively with universities facing the challenge of HMRC’s off-payroll labour rules. With over 46 years of experience in the employment tax arena, she is experienced in providing a wide range of employment tax advice in all aspects of employer compliance and employment tax risk advising HEIs including assisting with HMRC PAYE compliance reviews and helping employers navigate the new world of hybrid working.
Rebecca Seeley Harris - Employment Status Expert - Re:Legal Consulting Ltd
rebecca@relegalconsulting.co.uk
Rebecca started her own consultancy over 20 years ago when the tax initiative IR35 was announced in 1999. After a judicial review, IR35 became law in 2000 and Rebecca started advising companies on how to deal with IR35. Since then Rebecca has continued to advise companies both nationally and internationally on how to work with a non-standard workforce in the UK jurisdiction. She specialises in employment and tax status on all types of non-permanent positions including the self-employed, limb ‘b’ workers, LLP partners, personal service companies and the Construction Industry Scheme, amongst others.
What sets Rebecca apart from other advisers is that she has knowledge of both the position for tax status and for employment rights. It is essential for businesses to understand their position from both perspectives in order to understand the pit falls.
She has worked with BUFDG for a number of years, delivering the annual Employment Status Training and drafting the HE Common Roles document.
Natalie Shingler - Manager Employment Solutions - KPMG
natalie.shingler@kpmg.co.uk
Natalie has over 14 years’ experience in Payroll and re-joined KPMG as a Payroll Consultant in 2021. Natalie specialises in payroll regulatory and compliance issues, and brings both practical in-house and bureau experience of payroll and systems knowledge to the team. Since re-joining KPMG, Natalie has worked on a number of projects within the higher education sector whilst supporting other clients on the ever changing world of payroll, software, and process and controls to name a few. The key higher education projects she has supported with include a review of the payroll operation and software and a compliance review of calculations being undertaken to ensure both employee pay and RTI submissions are accurate and timely. As payroll comes with many complexities, she tries running away from this and went as far as running the London Marathon to get away!
Dr Rob Yeung - Director - Talentspace Ltd
rob@talentspace.co.uk
Dr Rob Yeung is a Chartered Psychologist and a director at Talentspace, where he specialises in leadership development, team development, and the psychology of peak performance. He works with organisations including: HSBC, Shell, KPMG, ACCA, and British Airways as well as institutions including the University of West London, Care Quality Commission, Refugee Support Network, and The Sainsbury Laboratory. He completed a Ph.D. in psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London and has worked as a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group, a top-tier firm.
As well as having published papers in scientific journals, he has contributed chapters to books such as Financial Times: Mastering People Management and written over 20 evidence-based books on psychology, leadership, and high achievement.
