This week's opinion: 23 April 2020

It is good to turn away from the current crisis and be reminded that not everything is doom and gloom. That is why we were delighted to be able to publish the shortlist for this year’s Taxation Awards and confirm that the awards will be going ahead, albeit in an online format. We will be announcing the winners on 14 May at 4pm on the awards website (tinyurl.com/yy972np2) so please put that date and time in your diaries.

Judging is hard work, but I always enjoy it for the unique insight it gives me into the current state of our profession, across all sectors and regions. 

After the winners have been announced I will be writing a longer piece commenting on some of the key themes emerging from the entries, but I want briefly to mention one of them this week: the impact that the Women in Tax network is having across our profession. 

Time and again firms – large and small – and the individuals within them, mentioned the huge benefits, particularly in helping to shape career development and boosting confidence, that the network had brought to them. It was not just women who are benefiting from this initiative. Several previously male-dominated businesses said that the insights from network members had helped them move the debate about gender diversity away from tokenism towards a genuine understanding that a business which did not integrate gender diversity into the heart of its DNA would fail to attract and retain the best people (men and women) and would struggle to be taken seriously in the market place. 

Congratulations to all those involved in the network (http://womenin.tax).