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After completing a degree in Financial Services at The University of Central Lancashire, Lucy knew that Tax was the area she wanted a career in.

Lucy joined David Allen in 2011 as Tax Manager and was later promoted to Tax Associate and then Tax Partner in 2019, which Lucy noted as the highlight of her career and her greatest professional achievement to date.

As Tax Partner some of Lucy’s responsibilities include looking after clients and carrying out tax planning work; specialising in all areas of personal tax planning including Inheritance Tax, Capital Gains Tax and succession planning.

We asked Lucy to take part in a little Q&A and here is what she had to say…

What motivates you?

Seeing how far the business has come in the past ten years, and knowing what we managed to achieve more recently at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, motivates me for the future.

With the changing pace of technology, and the problems still facing the economy and our clients as a result of the ongoing pandemic, we have lots of challenges still to face.  However, finding solutions to problems, which at first might seem unsolvable, gives me great satisfaction.

I also love to see others around me develop and progress within the firm.

What do you enjoy the most about your role?

Without a doubt the best part of my job is interacting with clients and building strong relationships with them.  It’s such a great feeling being able to help clients and getting fantastic outcomes for them, most of which usually result in reduced tax bills!

What are your strongest qualities?

Because I love tax, and the job I do, I work hard to keep up to date with everchanging tax legislation so that I can provide my client’s with the right advice.  I would therefore say that I am knowledgeable and dedicated, I am a stickler for attention to detail and take my time to understand my clients and their affairs.

What is the first piece of advice you would give to someone starting their career in tax?

“The sky’s the limit.”

Tax is such a huge subject, which means that there are lots of opportunities to specialise.  It covers many different types of tax such as Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax and Corporation Tax to name but a few.

No two of my days are ever the same, which gives me a huge amount of job satisfaction and means I am never bored!  One day I could be looking at a client’s estate and working out how to reduce their Inheritance Tax liability and the next I could be looking at the best way for a client to structure the sale of their business.

If you are good with numbers, or enjoy problem solving and thinking outside of the box, I would recommend considering a career in tax.  It definitely isn’t your usual desk job!

What is the top perk of working in #TeamDA?

There are many perks to working at David Allen, such as our new rewards scheme for staff that have gone above and beyond, our mental health and wellbeing support and the chance to ‘give a day to charity’.  However, I think the top perk is definitely the flexible working arrangements that we have in place.

If you would like to speak to Lucy or one of our tax specialists, please contact us.