Currently I’m being reminded how important it is to relax and take a break from pursuing your career. In little over a year I’ll be an exam qualified accountant with only a few months before I gain that coveted chartered status. Between now and then I have a busy audit season ahead of me, will be involved in helping hundreds of new colleagues who will be joining our public sector assurance practice from the Audit Commission, as well as the small matter of studying, revising and sitting six exams. So a busy year is ahead of me.

Last week was a bit of an exhausting one. I went from working on an NHS audit to in-charging a charitable fund audit, travelling to our London HQ for a meeting and in between all this I dialled into numerous conference calls, at one point whilst I was in the back of a taxi as I raced to catch a train. I worked late on a couple of evenings which although a rarity happens sometimes so we can deliver the service our clients need. So by Friday when I got home I more or less felt like going straight to sleep.

But it was the weekend, so after cooking and enjoying a nice meal with my wife we settled down to watch a couple of films. Saturday morning meant having a nice breakfast (not a full English as I’m still trying to shift a few pounds) then heading down to our allotment to plant out all the seedlings we’ve been nurturing over the past month. Getting my hands dirty on my allotment just resets my batteries and after a few hours I had forgotten how busy my week had been. Cue an afternoon cycling along the Bristol-Bath cycle path, a couple of drinks at the local pub I’d more or less fully recovered. Sunday was met with more of the same and then to top it off a roast dinner with homemade Yorkshire puds (not in line with the weight loss plans but couldn’t help myself). So now it’s Monday morning I feel like I’ve got a full tank ahead of a slightly less hectic but still full week ahead.

So what’s my point? Well, it’s really easy to get caught up when you work in a challenging and dynamic environment, where new opportunities and projects keep popping up. It’s easy to take on a lot of work and be given a lot of responsibility which is obviously a great way to get vital experience, but it’s vital to keep perspective and devote significant resources to maintaining a healthy work life balance. And anyway the firm’s clients and my colleagues aren’t interested in working with an auditing machine, they want to deal with real people who have their own ideas and well balanced personalities.

When I was a student at Loughborough University, one of my favourite modules was focused around the sources of funds and financial packages of new business start-ups. While this was only a 10 credit final year module, its impact on my desires to focus in this field in the future are clearly apparent.

Since leaving Loughborough, I’ve revisited on several occasions, many of which have been for careers events where I’ve been able to talk to the Grant Thornton employee hopefuls and talent of tomorrow. One question I’m always faced with, for which I find it almost impossible to answer, is “what do you do on a daily basis?”.

While I’m not going to be able to answer that question over the next 300 words, I am going to be able to explain a technical tax relief which I have recently been involved in. Fingers cross this will give an insight into the kind of thing a corporate tax associate does, as well as complementing my previous enjoyment for my favourite degree module.

New business is a real focus of our Coalition Government as it links in directly to David Cameron’s Big Society. As a result, in the March 2012 budget the Government announced a new form of tax relief for individuals if they invest up to 100,000GBP in early start-up companies’ shares.

This relief, called Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (or SEIS) relief, gives the individual a 50% reduction on their tax liability on SEIS investments up to 100,000GBP. Therefore, an investment in a SEIS company could see a tax liability reduced by 50,000GBP (or your actual tax liability, if less).

Furthermore, if these shares are sold after three years of ownership, they are exempt from Capital Gains Tax (CGT). In addition, there is a temporary CGT break for the 2012/13 tax year which means any gains made from the sale of other assets in the year, which are reinvested in SEIS shares, will be exempt from capital gains tax.

As future gains after three years are exempt, which can be chargeable at 28%, this relief can be worth in excess of 75% in tax reliefs and is certainly a generous way for the Government to encourage growth in new start-up companies.

The company will of course need to meet certain criteria too, including a restriction on their number of employees, amount of assets held and amount raised. They must also be operating within a ‘qualifying trade’ as outlined by tax legislation. These are all factors which must be considered when operating a SEIS plan and clearly its complexity strikes the need for professional tax advice.

I take great pleasure in working through beneficial tax solutions for clients which have a wider impact on the exciting business of new start-ups. I also enjoy how these technical pieces of tax legislation have a defined motivation to work towards building a more diverse and innovative British economy.

If you’ve found this interesting, then maybe a career in tax is for you. Feel free to comment below or tweet at me (@GT_NickB) if you should have any other questions regarding my job or the type of work I get involved with.

In recent months Grant Thornton have developed a new approach to how we can best help and support our clients. This new approach is summed up by our brand promise “an instinct for growth”.

What does this mean I hear you ask. Well to put it simply we want to become the leading business advisor for dynamic organisations around the world by unlocking their potential for growth. We refer to growth in its widest sense, so whether in financial measures, operational efficiency or new ways of working. Our purpose is to help them establish a foundation on which they can develop and grow.

In order to deliver on this promise, we at Grant Thornton look to combine our technical knowledge and reason with the experience we have gained as a global organisation. In addition, we look to have wider business conversations so that we can identify any challenges which our clients may face. We don’t just focus on specific audit or tax issues. By offering a wider and more integrated approach, we can give more meaningful and insightful advice to our clients. Everybody has a part to play, from our new recruits to our veteran partners. After all, a new auditor may ask an insightful question which challenges the client’s thinking and could lead to an operational change.
This new approach means that new competencies and skills are required by all of us at Grant Thornton and so the competencies you will be interviewed on have changed. We now look for the key skills required to be a business advisor. We also look to see if you have the fundamental behavioural traits. Do you have a genuine interest in clients? Do you use critical thinking to bring insight and clarity to the work you do?

The interview process will try to identify if you have these skills and behavioural traits. Therefore, it is crucial that you look back at what you have done and try and find examples, which help demonstrate these skills and behavioural traits.

As always if you have any further questions, please let us know by sending in questions on the forum or commenting underneath our blogs.

I was once asked at a careers event at Loughborough University how I had coped with the transformation from student to employee. Where the 11am roll out of bed became a 7am rush and a week’s worth of lecturing hours can sometimes fit themselves into one day at the office. I guess this will be a concern for a lot of people at University and, as I’m not exactly a ‘morning person’, it was probably a concern to me. As my student days are now two years behind me, I can honestly say a 7am start no longer fills me with dread, even if I still don’t like the noise of my alarm clock. Typically, and this really isn’t as bad as it sounds, the Grant Thornton Southampton office can feel a bit like my second home.

April though was quite the contrary to this rule, as I spent plenty of time hopping around my skillset in what was a three tier month.

I kicked the month off by heading back to Corporation Tax, where there was plenty of work to be catching up with after the end of my audit secondment. This also saw me heading out to a client early in the month to complete their tax return on site – an increasingly regular feature in my training contract as my experience and client relationships grow.

Mid-month came another shift in my day job, as I headed back over to the audit department for one final week to complete the audit of a games manufacturer. This provided yet another opportunity to broaden my horizons and get an insight into another truly interesting company.

As April drew to a close I started to experience one thing I’m sure all students can relate to. It’s that constant and nagging reminder of exams, badgering away in the back of your mind. This is one student habit I’ve not yet managed to shake and so the last week of the month was spent sitting at home with a textbook just inches away from my face.

As part of the CTA training contract, part way through we must complete a ‘hurdle’ exam which is designed to see if we’re up to the mental challenge of this qualification. I’d had plenty of practice but was still surprised to see how high the bar has been raised from ATT to CTA. Fortunately, a 67% pass is enough to see me heading off to Bradenham next month as I start my CTA qualification.

It’s been ages since I’ve been to Bradenham and I can’t wait to get up there to see my fellow tax trainees again. Of course, Bradenham being Bradenham means fantastic food and zero commute. I’ll probably weigh in at a couple of stone heavier at the end of May but here’s to hoping I’ll be smarter for it too.

Congratulations to Spilling the Beans member Chris on another successful London Marathon….

In the aftermath of the Marathon, I imagine the city is again finding its feet as the busy capital we’re used to, and the runners are putting their feet up after the challenge of a lifetime. I am yet to complete even the lightest of competitive jogs but I offer a congratulations to all those who ran on Sunday and helped in raising an impressive 50 million pounds for charity.

Of course, we’re all familiar with the idea of giving some money to a friend or family member to help them reach their target for a marathon, but could this 50m benchmark be harder to hit from April 2013 onwards?

In the recent budget, Chancellor George Osbourne has outlined new plans in relation to the GiftAid scheme.

Currently, any registered charity can reclaim 20% of the income tax paid on an eligible GiftAid payment. In addition, the donee is able to extend their basic rate band (the rate of tax for which 20% tax applies) in proportion to their giving. This can mean a tax saving of 25% for additional (45%) rate payers who reduce their 45% rate down to 20% by using the scheme. Effectively meaning that all GiftAid payments are made gross and no tax is paid, whatever the donation.

Clearly, this will encourage the highest earners to give more to charity and in many cases these ‘philanthropists’ are able to reduce their income tax bill by quite a significant amount.

The plan, which is due to come into effect in April 2013, will result in a cap for the relief. This will mean that GiftAid is only eligible until 50k of giving, or 25% of someone’s income, whichever is greater.

This has been met with a fierce backlash from philanthropists and charities who claim that the new rules will have damaging effects on their ability to help those in need.

The Chancellor defends the changes by suggesting that the new rules will be fairer on our society, illustrating that the high earners should pay their taxes before giving to charity. In any event, the new rules will still be some of the most tax-efficient in the world.
Whilst many politicians and newspapers have been making headline remarks, I personally believe it is unjust to consider these generous people ‘tax-dodgers’and whilst I accept the new rules as a necessary evil of a cash-stricken Government, I personally believe the 50k cap should be doubled to 100k.

Whilst I donated to friends for Sunday, these rules certainly don’t affect me although if I were a higher rate tax payer, I believe I will be more inclined to donate some of my earnings to charity as a result of the tax reliefs available from GiftAid.

As a tax adviser I always find tax changes interesting, especially when they’re relevant and at the forefront of the public eye. Of course, these views are my own and do not reflect those of Grant Thornton.

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the new rules? Do you think it is fair? What would you do differently?

Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment below, I’d love to hear what you think.

Like it or loathe it Social media is everywhere these days. It’s part of the daily routine of millions of people. It can be used to do an unbelievable range of things: from getting the latest news to finding a trendy nightspot, or networking for business or keeping in touch with friends and family… It is also big big business (Facebook paid 1 billion dollars for Instagram just last week).

Social media is what we’re all about on Spilling the Beans, we even won an award for it. We all write blogs, are active on our Facebook page and many of us regularly Tweet about our work life. We also have our own internal social network within the firm that we use to stay in touch, share ideas and work together on projects.

There is a feeling of mistrust of social media by many professional services firms. Earlier this year I was involved in drafting the firm’s social media guidance and helped design our intranet resources which are aimed at encouraging all the firms UK staff to get the most out of Twitter and other social networks.

I can say with confidence that Grant Thornton has been quite bold in its approach. Within the firm “use of social media sites for business purposes is not only permitted and acceptable but is desirable and expected”, which is quite a different standpoint to many other businesses. We recently shared our social media policy launch video on Youtube which you can view below.

The message at Grant Thornton is very clear, social media is seen as a huge opportunity for connecting with people, getting up to date information and sharing what the firm has to offer with the wider world. It is therefore far too important to be ignored. This should send a clear message to you as potential applicants. Make sure you harness social media to help you get to grips with what Grant Thornton has to offer you. Follow us on Twitter (shameless plug for GT_Will, GT_NickB and @GrantThorntonUK), connect with us on Facebook and talk to us via the forums on this site.

If you’re worried about using social media to help you get a job just remember these three simple rules and you won’t have any problems.

1) Use common sense

2) Remember that it is public and can be seen by anyone

3) Think twice before posting and if in doubt, don’t!

As a Grant Thornton trainee at a careers event, the one question that I can guarantee I will be asked is “why Grant Thornton over a Big 4 firm”?. I was asking myself exactly the same question when I was at uni and thinking about my career. Choosing the firm that I started my career with was a big decision and one which I needed to carefully consider. I recently spotted a question raised on Accountingweb.co.uk (http://bit.ly/eHRqMo) and thought a blog on my experiences and decision may help add to the debate.

I remember when I was making my decision that the Big Four firms had so many perceived benefits. They offer early specialisation, a large graduate intake (often 800 to 1,000 trainees) and they were highly recognised by my peers due to the amount of time they spent on my campus. These benefits were difficult to ignore when other friends from university were starting to land jobs with members of the Big 4.

The reason I applied to Grant Thornton was the opportunity to work on a wide variety of clients, obtain a well-rounded experience and also work in a firm where I felt I could make a real impact. My first experience of Grant Thornton was having a chat with a few of the people representing them at the careers fair. I was impressed with the people I spoke to and they seemed genuinely enthused about the firm, as opposed to just trying to give me a free pen! After this I researched Grant Thornton in more depth and was surprised at the amount of people that had heard of them and how well respected they were within the profession. I then found that a family friend had been with the firm for a number of years and she was full of praise for the training she received and the people orientated culture that she said was in place.

I found that I would be able to work on a wide variety of clients, including innovative and quick growing AIM listed clients. In addition to this I could obtain a well-rounded experience, not have to specialise in a particular industry so early in my career and be offered excellent career progression.

I knew there were a lot of differences between Grant Thornton and Big 4 but only since joining have I realised there are actually some similarities too. The majority receive exactly the same technical training provided by the same external provider. Another factor which I was not aware of was the level of recognition and prestige that Grant Thornton holds among fellow professionals. The perceived gap between the Big Four and Grant Thornton at student level is much higher than the actual gap in the professional arena. We actually audit one of the Big 4 so their perception of us cannot be that bad!

After much deliberation I chose to work for Grant Thornton. I decided I wanted to work for a leader in their own marketplace, an employer who provided extensive support and in a firm where I could make a difference. In the last 18 months at Grant Thornton I have worked on a wide breadth of clients, had an active involvement in client meetings, had the opportunity to design and maintain a website, interviewed the CEO, and obtained a professional qualification already. It has been a great experience so far and working at Grant Thornton has given me the opportunity to make an impression and stand out from the crowd.

So back to the question of which route you should take. It is a very difficult question to answer and one that does not have a ‘one fits all’ response. As everybody is different, my best advice would be to chose an employer that you like the “feel” of and one where you can relate to their values.

I am extremely happy with the decision I made and would make the same one again every time.

Are any of you currently tackling this dilemma or have any thoughts on the issue?

During the month of March I completed the main bulk of my audit secondment with it coming to a close at the end of the month. It seems that regardless of the department during March, it’s a busy time for any area of financial services. The rush of audits for December year ends and the large number of March tax return submissions meant I was kept on my toes with both audit and tax throughout the month.

Now that my audit secondment has officially come to an end, I have made two key observations about working as an auditor at Grant Thornton.

Firstly, at Grant Thornton audits are short. During the last six weeks I have completed three week long audits. Having such brief audits allows a trainee to experience a wide breadth of clients’ industries and provides the experience of almost all the audit. I imagine bigger audits could have the potential to drag and, if each part of the audit is lengthy, there is less variation to experience. During my three weeks out at clients, I managed to sample almost all audit tests, so there was little I didn’t experience. The client variation was great too, I audited an advertising agency, a toy distributor and an investment company, clearly the spice of life.

Secondly, at Grant Thornton auditors are not just auditors. Our firm produces financial statements for clients in addition to auditing them. Subsequently, I was able to revisit my accounting background and get on with some accounts preparation jobs. This is a skill which I think every ACA qualified person should experience, and I’m pleased to say I’m continuing with some small jobs in the future following my training of the accounts production software, even more spice!

March also proved to be a good month socially. We had our annual office quiz which is held in the meeting rooms where our team showed that it’s the taking part that counts (we came last, this is my excuse). I also joined around 20 other trainees at the end of the month to attend the Southern Counties Accountants Ball which was held at Southampton’s football ground. A great meal and a great laugh had by all and I’m already looking forward to next year.

Now April is upon us I’ve moved back into Corporate Tax where I am catching up with my backlog once again. Time is of the essence as I’ve been asked if I would do one more week in audit during the month before I get back into the exam routine; it’s the CTA hurdle exam at the end of the month which is an internal exam to see if I’m mentally up for the CTA challenge. I guess if we’re using athletic terms, April is a sprint, the exam is the hurdles and CTA seems like the marathon. I’d better start getting fit!

Seven years after airing on our screens the Apprentice is back for yet another series. The gruelling and dramatic trial which leads to one lucky contestant with an investment from one of this countries most beloved business men, Lord Alan Sugar. It has come a long way since its conception in 2005 which initially began as a glorified job interview. Having said that, the show has the main components of any job interview and offers the opportunity for candidates to reveal their skills whilst gaining an unique experience.

The first episode began as predicated with candidates spouting meaningless cliches like “I am an assassin”, but they were soon brought down a peg or two when it came to deciding the team leader. If there was ever a perfect example of a task which showed just a lack of ownership this would be it. To succeed in most business environments and particularly in an industry like ours you must relish the opportunity to take on responsibility, have the confidence to throw yourself into new tasks and take control of the job at hand, don?t hide into the background.

The performances in the second episode were not much better, with team Sterling creating a hopeless product. The gents also struggled as they failed to maintain their team spirit and unity which proved crucial just a week before. Azhar seem to lack key managerial and teamwork skills. His decision to just disregard all the feedback of the secondary group in the manner that he did and his lack of empathy to those guys after their days work was ignored instantly segregated the group and shattered the tight bond they had.

Don’t get me wrong, I think some candidates performed well and a few show a lot of promise. What these candidates do in such a short space of time and under pressure is no small feat. Nick did well to stay on top of his margins and had the courage to step up and lead on the first task. Some of the women really stood out, most notably Gabrielle, her passion and gumption was clear for all to see. Now whilst Jane could have performed better in week two, she seems to have good organisational and a strong strategic and logical approach to each task.

I guess as the weeks go on we will start to understand these candidates and see which ones shine. Who do you think will win the Apprentice 2012?

If any of you want to chat about the apprentice or follow me then do so on twitter @GT_Victorj.

If any of you have any other questions then please don’t hesitate to contact any one of us, you can send us a question on the forum, write us on Facebook or follow us on twitter.

Bradenham is a place you’ll get to know and love if you join the firm. It’s our central training facility which all trainees attend for internal training throughout the three years of their contracts. It takes on an almost legendary status for several reasons which I’ve attempted to outline below.

Firstly the training is excellent as it’s delivered by a mixture of external consultants and Grant Thornton’s own development team who have years of experience in the very careers that trainees themselves are pursuing. I’ve just got back from a week at Bradenham where I have been attending the fourth course of my training contract. This course was aimed at second year trainees and I’ve been learning what it takes to step up to being an in-charge accountant. I’ve had an intense week learning how to deliver an audit from scratch but the other reasons for Bradenham’s legendary status more than made up for the effort of studying.

Talk to any trainee who’s been there and they’ll definitely mention the FOOD. I know I’ve blogged in the last few months about my attempts to banish a few pounds I put on last year but I couldn’t resist the cooked breakfasts or the great lunches and dinners (Southern Fried Chicken was the highlight last week) that are laid on every day. However, there is also a gym on site so there’s really no excuse for not staying active even though the classes are mentally demanding.

Location wise it’s also tough to beat. Our training centre is based in a 17th century manor house surrounded by stunning Buckinghamshire countryside. There’s lots of wildlife too, and I have to admit that during one lesson I was distracted when three red kites kept flying past the window. With the unseasonably hot weather, last week meant relaxing outside with a very welcome cup of tea and cake after class. There’s also volleyball, boule, croquet, a bar and a games room on site which mean unwinding in the evenings isn’t a problem.

So now I’m back working on audits I can certainly say that what I learned last week has improved the way I approach my work. It’s also massively enhanced my understanding of the service we’re delivering to our clients which is really important. Now I need to start thinking about enrolling on my next course so I can benefit from more training and (don’t judge me) the delicious desserts?