Jamie Morrison leads our tax team at HW Fisher, working in the UK and Asia with private clients, entrepreneurs and family offices. We asked Jamie to share his career highlights and best advice he may have for clients, including why you can never rest on your laurels in tax!
How would you describe your role in three words?
Making things happen.
Favourite thing about your role?
The variety of work and finding solutions.
What is your career highlight?
Sitting in 11 Downing Street with the chancellor of the exchequer making the news that day.
What area do you currently specialise in? Tell us what your work involves.
I am head of tax, with responsibility for overseeing the delivery of all tax services across the firm.
My client-facing role is working with private clients advising them on tax and commercial matters.
I work primarily with entrepreneurs, advising them on corporate and business taxes, as well as how to structure deals etc.
I also work for some clients on a more involved basis, helping them negotiate contracts, financing arrangements, through to buying cars, overseeing personal payroll – whatever the client needs!
I also head up our business in Asia, spending around 6 weeks per year travelling across Hong Kong, Singapore and Mainland China, meeting clients and contacts. This is an ever-growing part of our business as we support overseas-based individuals looking to invest into property and businesses here in the UK.
Tell us about some of the top trends you have been following in the past year – is there something that businesses should be aware of?
Tax is always on everyone’s agenda.
There have obviously been a lot of issues at the moment, from the Covid support measures, through to increased enforcement from HMRC on various matters and the recent tax changes to keep clients abreast of.
Clearly with the more recent announcements it is clear that business is shouldering a significant burden and so sensible planning is needed to make sure that the burden is no more than it should be.
The level of enforcement action we see from HMRC around enquiries into taxpayer affairs will also increase as the government looks to balance the books and repay the borrowing used to fund the various Covid support measures.
What is one piece of advice you would give to clients at the moment?
Same as always – don’t panic. Often decisions made in haste cause leisurely repentance. Making fundamental decisions, whether on your personal or corporate affairs, should be a considered process, not a knee-jerk reaction to the latest government announcement.
What are your goals for your area of the business over the next 12 months?
We took a decision to significantly increase the number of tax partners at the firm, taking us to 11 tax partners overall. Over the next 12 months the goal is to help these new partners settle in and use their experience to further assist clients and develop our tax practice.
Other primary goals are to increase the profile of the tax work that we do at HW Fisher and tell the world about the good client work that we do and further develop the impressive array of clients that we have.
What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?
You can never rest on your laurels in tax. You must constantly keep your knowledge fresh and also accept that you cannot know everything. Working on tax these days is a team sport, given the complexity and breadth of existing UK tax law and no one individual can do it all.
Outside of work, what would you be doing?
Probably more work! I enjoy weight training and try and fit that in at least 5 times per week and I also enjoy spending time in the garden and walking my dog.
Get in touch with Jamie for any queries or if there is anything we can do to support you and your own circumstances.
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