Highly experienced tax specialist Chris Watts has appointed as an associate director in regional accountancy firm Old Mill’s capital tax advisory team.
A qualified member of the Association of Accounting Technicians, Chartered Institute of Taxation and Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, Chris, pictured, has 26 years’ experience in the industry, with particular expertise in highly complex tax structures and the tax rules around emerging assets.
His arrival comes following the announcement last year by Old Mill, which has offices in Chippenham, Wells, Yeovil and Exeter, that it plans to double the size of the business by 2026.
Chris said this strategy, which encourages and rewards individual contributions to growth, was a real draw for him.
He started his career in 1996 when he joined PKF Francis Clark as an apprentice, working his way up from tax trainee to tax compliance manager and tax advisory consultant before being promoted to tax director in 2017.
For the past two years he has been working remotely for a boutique tax advisory firm based in Manchester.
Chris has expertise across a variety of different areas of taxation, with particular knowledge and experience in dealing with highly complex tax matters including tax investigations and crypto compliance.
He said: “I have worked on a number of complex tax investigations, and have provided assistance to clients and their legal teams where they are being prosecuted by HMRC for suspected criminal tax evasion cases.
“I have also worked with individuals who have crypto investments to advise on their tax positions and assist making disclosures to HMRC where they have not understood their obligations.”
“Old Mill’s culture of developing new areas and allowing individuals to drive forwards with their own ideas and projects to help the firm reach its objectives was an attractive proposition for me.
“A lot of what we do in the tax team can be quite niche; making these services relevant to clients is key to the firm’s growth, and I am looking forward to coming up with new ways to promote both existing and new services to clients and deliver these in an effective way.”
Old Mill director of tax David Maslen added: “At Old Mill, we encourage and support people to work within the area of tax they are most passionate about, and as a result we are able to recruit top talent like Chris.
“Chris’ extensive experience across complex tax matters, and his knowledge of the crypto market will further enhance our offering to clients, while his record of training and mentoring colleagues combined with his drive to grow the tax team in size and expertise will be a huge asset to the tax team and the business as a whole.”
