Tax needn’t be taxing with Carpenter Box… the Accounting Excellence Tax Team of the Year

Sussex and South East accountancy firm Carpenter Box is ending 2024 on a high, winning the national ‘Tax Team of the Year’ accolade at the prestigious Accounting Excellence Awards.

The achievement recognises the firm’s continuous investment in people and technology within the Tax Services Group, which comprises six Partners and 35 members of staff across six offices. Twenty of the team are Chartered Tax Advisers.

The award reflects Carpenter Box’s strategy to build a tax team with specialist expertise, cementing the firm’s position as the premier tax advisory service for owner-managed businesses across the South East region. The team’s focus certainly impressed the award judges, who described the firm as ‘innovative…with clearly defined strategy and goals…and a real focus on client care’.

“Teamwork is at the heart of the service we provide to our clients, and this award celebrates the hard work of our team. We focus enormously on staff development and training. We want to ensure that every single member of the team is not only recognised and valued, but also equipped with the technical and personal skills they need to deliver appropriate professional advice to our growing client base.”

Stuart Noakes, Head of Tax Services at Carpenter Box

About Carpenter Box

With 19 Partners and over 250 staff, Carpenter Box offers a comprehensive range of services to businesses and private clients across Sussex and the South East, including accounting, tax and advisory support. Established in Worthing over 100 years ago, the firm’s expansion has accelerated significantly over the last decade, with offices now in Worthing, Brighton, Crawley, Chichester, Portsmouth and London.

The firm is active across a number of industry and commercial sectors including manufacturing, construction, real estate, professional practices, not for profit organisations and vineyards. In 2011, Carpenter Box launched StarBox – a full-service accounting and business advice offering for new media entrepreneurs, social influencers and rising stars.

Carpenter Box also aims to play a part in helping local communities thrive. Their dedicated Charitable Foundation raised over £82k during the firm’s centenary year, and has donated more than £400k to a number of local charities and community groups since its inception 15 years ago.

Q&A with Stuart Noakes, Head of Tax Services at Carpenter Box

Q. How has the tax team developed since you joined Carpenter Box?

I joined Carpenter Box in April 2004 after spending seven years working for a global professional accounting firm in London, before moving to their Brighton office for a further three years.

At that time, there were seven Partners at Carpenter Box, looking after a team of around 65 staff, based in three offices across Worthing.

What struck me from day one was the close interest the firm takes in the success of its clients, and the relationships built by the Partners and staff. Everyone has a genuine desire to help our clients succeed.

To further improve our client service, we developed specialist client service teams and, understandably, I led the development of the Tax Services Group. Since then, the tax team has grown to six Partners and 35 members of staff. This is a reflection of both the increase in clients we look after and the range of specialist tax expertise that we now offer between us.

We continuously invest in the skills of our people and recruit a number of trainees each year, including some from local schools and colleges. The result is a tax service that is probably the most comprehensive of any regional firm in the area.

Q. What drives you professionally and what gives you the greatest satisfaction day-to-day?

I have a natural interest in business. I have always really enjoyed working alongside people, and advising on their business ventures.

I see our team as “architects”, designing strategies tailored to individual situations, leveraging the experience of our tax team. This personalised approach ensures each client receives the best possible advice to minimise their tax liabilities and help optimise their business profitability.

It is very satisfying to see clients benefit from the advice and support that we have provided and to know that we’ve contributed to their success.

Q. What are the main specialisms within the team?

Our tax team is divided into two main services:

• Private client services – The team provides tax planning advice and support with tax compliance for individuals and families, optimising their personal tax position so they can retain more of their hard-earned income and capital. This includes a focus on areas such as income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax. We also work closely with the independent financial advisers at Carpenter Box Financial Advisers to provide a seamless approach to financial planning.

• Business advisory services – The team offers strategic tax planning advice and compliance work for businesses and their owners, no matter the size or sector. This covers areas such as corporation tax and remuneration for owner-managers. The team has a significant amount of experience in corporate restructuring and dealing with corporate finance situations such as sales, mergers and acquisitions. But also looks at sector specific reliefs such as research & development (R&D) and creative sector tax reliefs. This can be for stand-alone companies or large groups.

Another focus area for us is international tax planning, which encompasses both private client and business advisory services. In particular, we help businesses around their corporate tax issues, including transfer pricing and can advise on structuring global businesses. As a result, we have attracted a number of UK based companies looking to expand their operations into international markets, which means understanding the complexities of diverse tax regimes in different countries.

We also have a team of dedicated VAT specialists with experience in advising on all things VAT related.

Q. What is the team’s ambition for the next three years?

For Carpenter Box, our ambition over the next three years is to cement our position as the number one accountancy firm in the region. The tax team is central to the firm’s success and growth plans. The aim of our team is to continue to solidify our reputation as the premier tax team. We want to be the first port of call for our clients, and the go-to tax experts for other professional services.

We plan to do this by centering on

two areas:

1. Technical excellence – recruiting and training the right people to ensure the team remains outstanding.

2. Uplifting tax expertise firm-wide – upskilling the rest of the firm with internal training sessions and integrating the tax team within each department.

Q. What are the current post-Budget challenges facing your clients?

The Budget introduced a huge array of tax changes that affect businesses and their owners, particularly for inheritance tax, capital gains tax and employer national insurance. We are already working with many companies, owner-managed businesses and private clients to make sense of it all and help them recalibrate their tax strategies.

Without doubt, business owners and farmers will want to review the way their affairs are structured and people with pension savings will also want to assess the impact of a change in rules. Our role will be to help them restructure their business and financial affairs to make sure they continue to operate in a tax-efficient but compliant manner in a changing environment.

Q. How important is the StarBox offering to Carpenter Box?

StarBox is a fantastic success story as an arm of the Carpenter Box team, and the tax specialists have been instrumental in expanding the firm’s client base and revenue in a dynamic and growing industry.

Q. What does the Accounting Excellence Award win mean to the firm?

Personally, I am incredibly proud of what our tax team has achieved. I see this as a validation for both the firm and the staff of the high standards we set ourselves and our ability to deliver tangible results for our clients. We want to continue on this journey, building strong, efficient and customer focused teams in all our offices, including our newest office in Portsmouth.