Annual review of the tax profession

Now that the dust has settled on the 2024 Taxation Awards I thought that I would as have done before share with you some of my thoughts about what the entries say about the current state of our profession the issues which concern us all and what the future may hold. All of the entries are of course submitted confidentially and obviously I am not going to say anything here relating to particular firms. I am however confident that I can make some general points without compromising the integrity of the process.

Don’t touch that keyboard!

Let’s start with IT. What struck me forcefully this time round is just how much technology underpins everything that happens within our profession. I’m old enough to remember the days when accounts computations and letters were all typed: the idea of a professional tax adviser touching a...