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Explorer opens up VAT at French Duncan

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12th Apr 2012
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Craig Mathieson (pictured right), hailed as Scotland’s greatest living explorer by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society on account of his many polar expeditions, is facing a new adventure after leaving Johnston Carmichael to set up a new VAT department at mid-tier firm French Duncan.

So, does he see any parallels with his new post and his polar explorations?

“Yes,” he says immediately, “leadership.”

“Do accountants do leadership?”

“Polar explorers like Nansen and Scott were fantastic leaders,” he points out. “Leadership is so often misunderstood. It's not about how loud you can shout and being the alpha male, an attitude only likely to achieve demotivating your entire staff, but it is about surrounding yourself with a team of experts and guiding them in the best way for everyone to get to the agreed goal. Whether I’m leading a group through a crevasse field in the Arctic or leading a business through a complex VAT issue, the attributes have to be the same. There has to be trust. Without trust and integrity the whole process can break down”.

After seven years with Johnston Carmichael - one of the fastest growing firms north of the border - Mathieson is moving to the a smaller firm where he will be in charge of his own indirect tax department, dealing with VAT, Customs duties, Excise duties, climate change levy, landfill tax, aggregates levy and the like.

“Joining French Duncan represents a fantastic opportunity,” says Mathieson, who admits to doing his own due diligence on the firm over several months.  “If you get offered a partnership in a good accountancy firm with an excellent background and, important for me, a good reputation with HMRC, it presents an ideal opportunity in which to progress. That’s why, when, following some months of discussion, the offer was made, it was accepted by return.”

“A big attraction for me was the blank canvas; the fact that French Duncan did not have an existing VAT department, which enabled us to set everything up properly from scratch.  I like to do things by the book, and this opportunity to come in and start an indirect tax practice from scratch very much appealed to me.”

Before going into practice Mathieson trained as what he calls an “old school HM Customs & Excise” VAT inspector and anti-fraud officer.

One of the problems he sees at HMRC these days is that some officers simply do not understand exactly how businesses operate, and are often “blinkered” into thinking that anything being restructured is simply a move to avoid VAT. 

“I have had a similar issue with a client who had to take an issue to the courts and tribunal at a cost of some £80,000, which they could ill afford, to prove they were right in the first place.”

Unlike many AccountingWEB members, Mathieson does not have a problem with HMRC’s proposals to reform small business tax accounting, which will have little detrimental effect on VAT businesses and, if anything, make it easier for them to operate news.

Graeme Finnie, managing partner at French Duncan, regards the appointment of Mathieson and senior manager Claire McCaffray as confirmation of his firm’s burgeoning reputation.

“Given that VAT represents 20% of net spend, it is an issue of pressing relevance to all clients – sums involved can be significant and if you don’t deal with the issues appropriately, then the penalties and financial ramifications can be considerable.”

But what happens to Mathieson’s polar explorations?

“I am going back to the Arctic in May and having talks with the Greenlandic Government on their youth education issues and problems, and about setting up a programme that involves young Inuits and young Scots,” he says.

 “It will be a good marketing exercise for us,” he adds with a polar explorer’s shrewdness.

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