Top Recommended Tax Accountants

‘It’s what happens with all regulation: the moment you think that you can’t trust people, and you bombard them with more rules and conditions, you just make it complicated for everybody.’ So says Victor Dauppe, tax partner at Arram Berlyn Gardner.

Dauppe’s broad practice advises on inheritance, corporation and personal tax matters as well as trademark issues and loss relief claims. But it’s the uncertainty regarding legislative shifts that is troubling him. ‘We are in no man’s land: the last 12 months have been a race for the non-doms to comply,’ he says.

The existing tax regime also comes in for criticism: ‘It’s crazy in this century to have a system where it’s not instantly clear whether someone is an employee or self-employed and huge liabilities apply if the client gets it wrong.’ Dauppe suggests that income tax and national insurance should merge: ‘You could have some structure that certifies not [being] in the black market: reputation is so important,’ he says.

Recent audit changes have created unnecessary thresholds, adds Dauppe. ‘All companies should be liable to audit, not at full strength, but at half-strength,’ he says, ‘and we ought to abandon all taxation of profits.’