The year in focus

"Even with slower growth this year we have still increased our revenue by 50 per cent since 2004," says Head of Tax Paul Eagland. "In the last 12 months we've built on the success of recent times and have invested heavily in recruitment and training."

This year, as predicted, HM Revenue & Customs has continued to take a much tougher line on aggressive tax planning and is turning its attention to fundamental compliance and 'standard' planning, using risk-based techniques to identify areas that could result in increases in tax revenues. We continue to work closely with our clients to ensure they appreciate this new approach and that their tax profiles and compliance procedures are robust.

"Tax planning is no longer about off-the-shelf products. It's much more of a bespoke service," says Paul. "Some of our competitors are losing out by not recognising this, but it suits our way of working."

We also continue to strengthen our offer in specialist areas. We have recruited heavily in international tax after several big client wins in the last couple of years. We now deliver tax services to a significant number of companies in the FTSE 350. Our London-based Transfer Pricing team has tripled in size, and during the year Henderson Global Investors was a major win.

We act for the executives of several private equity houses in the larger mid-market, including our recent appointment as advisers to the executives of one of the largest biotech private equity funds in the UK.

The quality of our service was recognised at this year's LexisNexis Butterworths Taxation Awards. In winning the award for Best Tax Investigations Team, the judging panel commented, "This category rewards a top quality tax investigations team that manages the difficult demands of enquiry work. We were impressed by the winning team's understanding of the stress the enquiries caused clients, and the 24/7 service which they offered in response."

Looking ahead

From graduate entry onwards we invest in our people. We train them to be skilled tax practitioners, not just to pass exams; and it doesn't end there. We are fostering a knowledge-sharing culture. We have brainstorming sessions with leading tax QCs and we constantly swap ideas on our intranet. "High quality tax professionals are being attracted to the practice we have created, says Paul. "It's designed by tax people for tax people." The benefits to our clients are clear: working with a personable team of experts – why settle for anything less?

As a result, the practice is attracting some of the best tax brains in the business. Paul foresees continuing growth as clients increasingly recognise this, and he plans to carry on investing in the culture: "There's a terrific energy here. When people join, they tend to stay. We want to continue that and enjoy ourselves as we do."