Background 

Kirsty is a Senior Manager within our Employer Solutions team based in our Aberdeen office. With a specific focus on the Oil & Gas sector, Kirsty helps our Employer clients optimise their tax efficiencies both locally and on an international basis.  

What does Kirsty get up to on a typical working day?

'This morning started with a meeting with two of the owners of a small consultancy business, who have operated exclusively in the UK to date, but have secured work in Australia.  They operate mainly in the Oil and Gas sector and will be sending an employee of the UK company to Australia to support an individual they have hired and look for further business.  I have been working with my corporate tax colleagues within JC Aberdeen and also with our counterparts at PKF in Perth to come up with the best model for them to grow their business in a compliant and tax efficient manner.  I have also assisted by putting them in touch with contacts who can help with their non-tax issues, such as immigration support.

Afterwards, I spent some time reading over some emails regarding a fairly new client to the firm, who also operate in the Oil and Gas sector, but fall into the category of multi-national, with a large number of employees working globally.  They have asked us to review their offshore crewing arrangements, so I have been working with my corporate tax and VAT colleagues to review the contracts they have in place to establish whether they could have any tax or social security issues.  It’s important to have a joined up approach, to make sure we do not give any impractical or contradictory advice and come up with the best fit for our clients.

Over lunch, I attended a meeting arranged by the office Corporate Social Responsbility committee that I sit on.  The Aberdeen office is supporting two charities this year – the local Maggie’s Centre and the Rubislaw Ward at the maternity hospital, so one of the midwives came to tell us how the funds we raise will be used to help families that need to use their services. 

My final  meeting of the day involved heading out to a client’s office with our Payroll Manager, Mark.  One of our Audit partners had been out visiting the client last week and they happened to mention some questions they had about personnel working internationally who had tax liabilities overseas, but also continued to be taxable in the UK on the same income.  Mark and I talked them through how we could assist them to manage this through the payroll by working directly with their overseas payroll provider and how best to present the information their employees need.  We also discussed the monthly reports our payroll team can produce to ensure that things run as smoothly as possible for the accounting team when they prepare their own monthly management reports. 

Each client has slightly different requirements so we aim to be as flexible as possible to help them manage their compliance obligations, but also their internal reporting commitments as easily as possible.'