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It was a delight to see so many friends and colleagues at the Taxation Awards last week. I know people always say this, but I genuinely think this was the best ever year for the awards both in terms of the quality and quantity of the entries but also on the night itself.
Miles Jupp did a splendid job of entertaining us all and getting through the presentation of the awards at a rate of knots. Congratulations again to all of the winners and commiserations to those who didn’t quite make it. (The list of winners is on page 4 of this issue.)
I hope that other winners will not mind if I single out two winners for a mention here. The first was Dan Neidle, who won the award for outstanding contribution to taxation in 2022-23 by an individual. He has showed us that difficult tax issues can be explained to the general public without talking down to them or being patronising. There’s a real lesson there for all of us who write about tax.
The other is our lifetime achievement winner Heather Self. When I was announcing the winner I felt a wave of real affection breaking through the audience as people realised who the winner was going to be. If you look at the pictures of the awards at 2023 gallery (taxationawards.co.uk) you will see so many women on stage and in the audience. That wouldn’t have been the case when the awards started. Heather more than any other single person can take the credit for that transformation. I was so pleased to be able to present her with the award.
If you do one thing...
Make a resolution now that you or your firm will put in an entry in next year’s Taxation Awards. Being shortlisted, let alone winning, can be a huge boost of confidence and pay handsome dividends when recruiting new staff or clients. Full details of the 2024 awards will be announced shortly.
