The Partners are delighted to announce the promotion of three members of their Management Team to Senior Manager positions.

Elizabeth Milne is a member of the firm’s accounting services team where she is responsible for providing extensive accounting and business advisory support to a broad range of clients, with a particular focus on investment property and property development companies. She also works with international inbound companies setting up UK subsidiaries, as well as managing the outsourcing function and year end compliance work of established UK subsidiaries where the parent company is overseas.

Lisa Tait has been a member of the firm’s Private Client team for over 10 years, specialising in Inheritance Tax planning and the taxation of Trusts. Lisa also deals with the taxation of individuals, landed estates and advises business owners on succession planning.

Karen Groat specialises in Expatriate and International Tax advisory within the firm’s Global Payroll & Employment Taxes team.  She provides support to clients with internationally mobile employees advising on tax policy, how to structure packages cost efficiently as well as assisting in managing their global tax compliance obligations.

Graeme Allan, Managing Partner, commented “These promotions expand our senior team and demonstrate the broad range of specialist skills we continue to develop within our team. Each of these promotions is very well deserved and further strengthens our ability to deliver only the very best of client service.”

 

 

Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP (AAB), one of the UK’s leading firms of Chartered Accountants + Business Advisors, has announced the appointment of Kevin Meaney as Tax Director.

Kevin brings extensive knowledge within the field of taxation to AAB having gained a broad experience spanning Corporates, Groups, Partnerships, Management Buy Outs, Private Equity, M&A and Share Scheme implementation. This has been gained from senior roles with HM Revenue & Customs and within practice, at Big Four, national and independent firms.

Kevin’s particular area of expertise is within providing accounting and advisory advice and support to entrepreneurial clients across areas such as EIS, entrepreneurs relief, COP9 HMRC tax investigations, M&A, corporate restructurings and demergers.

Graeme Allan, Managing Partner, commented “Kevin is an excellent addition to our Leadership Team as Tax Director and we are delighted to welcome him to AAB. He brings great experience and a wealth of knowledge to the firm which will enhance our ability to provide specialist tax services to our clients, wherever they are in the world.”

On his appointment, Kevin added “I am very pleased to be joining AAB team as Tax Director and it is great to be part of a team which is so ambitious. I look forward to working with my new colleagues and playing my part in various projects and initiatives, and ultimately expanding our services across the UK, and further afield.”

Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP (AAB), one of the UK’s leading independent firms of Chartered Accountants + Business Advisors, is delighted to announce that their global Payroll & Employment Taxes team received the Service Provider Team Award at “The Rewards” 2017 in London last night.

The award recognises the dedication the AAB team has to not only develop themselves through training and qualifications, but also the extensive high quality services offered to clients. Following a difficult year for many businesses due to the economic downturn, the team has faced new challenges but through their creative approach to innovative client solutions, has seen growth in all of the team’s services.

This is the sixth consecutive year that AAB has seen success at this ceremony (formerly known as the Payroll World Awards), being recognised for a number of specialist services, the team’s ever increasing commitment to providing the very best services to clients, strengthening relationships and always putting their client’s needs first.

Steven Fraser, Director at AAB commented “this is truly a fantastic achievement for our team as it demonstrates the dedication and hard work by our people to deliver innovative solutions and exceptional service to our clients and we are very proud to have won this prestigious award”.

The team were also recently celebrating achieving the Payroll Assurance Scheme (PAS) accreditation from the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals (CIPP).  This accreditation was achieved as a result of a review by CIPP of not only the payroll processes in place, but also the learning and development of staff within the payroll function.

These recent awards and accreditations are recognition of AAB’s commitment to delivering excellent global payroll and employment tax services to clients.

 

 

Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP (AAB), one of the leading independent firms of Chartered Accountants + Business Advisors in Scotland, has announced that fee income within its outsourcing division has grown by 25% in the last 12 months, driven by new clients coming on board throughout the UK. AAB has welcomed 50 new clients to the division which has resulted in an extra five new jobs being created and a further five promotions within the team.

Whilst over half of AAB’s outsourcing clients are still UK headquartered an increasing number of international businesses coming to the UK are now working in partnership with AAB, with many of these businesses being internationally owned or managed from overseas, in a host of countries including Norway, Italy, USA, UAE, Italy, Mexico, Australia and Russia.

Through AAB’s cloud based outsourcing solutions, businesses can be transformed by a service which takes care of all accounting, bookkeeping, UK and international tax, VAT, global payroll, project management and data capture requirements. The growth achieved in this area has been as a result of both client and market demand for cloud-based services which offer businesses the opportunity to gain real-time information on their key business areas, from anywhere in the world, at any time.

Steve Mitchell, Partner and Head of Outsourcing at AAB commented “Technology truly has made the world a smaller place and because of cloud-based software systems, users can access real-time data from any location, globally, at any time, as long as they have access to the internet, meaning that they constantly have an up-to-date view of their business finances available at their fingertips.  We are delighted with the significant growth in our outsourcing business in the last year and are now working with a fantastic range of clients across a broad range of sectors and geographical locations.   We are very much focussed on working in partnership with our clients to deliver them the best outsourcing solution to add value to their business.”

Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP, one of the leading independent firms of Chartered Accountants + Business Advisors in the UK, sponsors of The Robert Gordon University Best Final Year Student in Accounting and Finance BA (Hons), has awarded the 2017 prize to Chelsea Robertson.

Chelsea, who practices make-up artistry in her spare time, achieved a first class honours degree and was also awarded the Charles Scott ICAS prize having achieved top marks for the Financial Accounting and Tax modules during her final year at University.

John Black, partner commented “We have sponsored this annual award since its introduction in 1997 and continue to be very impressed with the high standard of candidates graduating from this degree course and Chelsea is certainly no exception.”

We are delighted to announce that AAB has been nominated and selected as finalists for the 2017 P&J Gold Awards in the ‘Best Employer’ category.

Now in its third year, the Gold Awards have grown from strength to strength and are considered to be among the most prestigious awards in the energy sector. The ‘Best Employer’ award recognises the firm that best demonstrates its commitment to its people and dedication to creating a standout company culture.

Managing Partner Graeme Allan commented “At AAB we recognise that exceptional people are our greatest asset and we pride ourselves on our ability to provide varied, interesting and challenging careers to support our exceptional people in achieving their full potential. It is fantastic that our efforts and the talented individuals at AAB are being recognised in this way and that we have been nominated for this award.”

The very best of the industry will be celebrated, and winners will be announced on Friday, September 8th at a prestigious black tie event held at the Marcliffe Hotel Aberdeen, hosted by BBC’s Steph McGovern.

Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP (AAB), one of the UK’s leading independent firms of Chartered Accountants & Business Advisors, has announced significant growth within its global mobility arm following a clutch of new contract wins, with a cumulative annual recurring value in excess of £1million during 2017. These new contracts have seen a 25% increase in turnover for the mobility team which is now over 50 people strong. With these new clients on board, AAB now provides global mobility advice and compliance in every major country in Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and Australia.

AAB’s Global Mobility offering assists businesses who have employees operating in different locations around the globe to overcome complex corporate and individual tax / social security issues in a cost effective and efficient way. The team at AAB have provided global mobility compliance services for many years but most recently have developed a unique global tracking software solution, to complement their compliance services.

Through this tracking software, clients can access an interactive dashboard technology on a real time basis to identify travelling employees who trigger compliance risk for themselves or for the company, assess tax reporting and withholding obligations globally and ensure all reporting and filing obligations are discharged on an easy to view basis. The software can be tailored and bespoke to each client no matter their size or location.

Steven Fraser, Head of Global Mobility at AAB commented “the growth we have achieved in our team has been driven purely based on client demand as creating and sustaining a successful global mobility programme has become an increasingly important issue for our clients. They tell us that their top challenges in this area are around cost control, visa and immigration regulations, assignee tracking and reporting and policy development and they are ultimately looking for a solution which ticks all of those boxes which was the driving force behind the development of our niche tracking tool.

Furthermore, with these challenges in mind we created a knowledge sharing forum for companies to get together to discuss these challenges and best practice via our ‘Talent Across Borders’ round table events, which we launched in Aberdeen and London earlier this year. These events were a great success and their interactive nature really enabled the participants to share real life examples and ask relevant questions of their peers. We will be continuing these round-table style events throughout the year and invite anyone with global mobility challenges or indeed success stories to get in touch.”

Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP (AAB) has become the third business, and only accountancy firm, in Scotland, to receive a triple triumph from Investors in People (IIP) having become accredited at the highest level for all three IIP Awards:

• Investors in People – Platinum
• Investors in Young People – Gold
• Investors in People – Health and Wellbeing

Globally recognised, successful accreditation against the Investors in People standard is the sign of a great employer, an outstanding place to work and a clear commitment to sustainability. The platinum accreditation in particular highlights firms who are truly high performing organisations that are operating at the pinnacle of people management practice using Investors in People to drive their business forward.

The accreditations were achieved after receiving online feedback from staff at AAB and IIP then carrying out face-to-face interviews and observation within the firm.

Graeme Allan, AAB’s Managing Partner commented “We are absolutely delighted with these accreditations and the feedback we have received through the various assessments. As one of only 12 organisations across Scotland who hold the IIP Platinum accreditation, it shows that with the right recruitment, employee engagement, training and development strategy, great things can be achieved in the workplace.

The achievement of the Health and Wellbeing award is a new one for us and whilst we have always been committed to promoting health and wellbeing activities across our firm the launch of the Anderson Anderson & Brown Charitable Initiative last year really helped formalise them alongside our charity fundraising, volunteering and education activities.

I am incredibly proud of our team and how value driven and committed they are to AAB.”

Karen Stewart, Chief Human Resources Officer at AAB added “Continuous improvement is so important to us and that’s why we continue to benchmark ourselves and our activities with internationally-recognised standards such as IIP.

All of these accreditations are fantastic accolades which demonstrate our various commitments to our people. Retaining the Investors in Young People award at Gold status is brilliant as young people remain core to our recruitment strategy and our activities continue to increase each year.

It is fantastic that our commitment to our people and employee engagement activities and all of the great things we do as a firm and for our people has been recognised but the most rewarding thing about this success is that it has only been made possible because of our staff and how they view life at AAB.”

Commenting on AAB’s triple triumph Peter Russian, Chief Executive at Investors in People, said “Achieving Investors in People Platinum Accreditation, the Health & Wellbeing Award, or the Investors in Young People Gold Award are fabulous achievements in their own right. But receiving all three at the top level is a real mark of the high esteem in which Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP hold their people”.

The Reward 100, which is chosen by a panel of experts at Payroll World Magazine, is an index of the 100 most dedicated and influential leaders in the pay and reward space, encompassing payroll, HR, workplace pensions, employee benefits and employment law.

Commenting on this recognition, Steven said “I am extremely proud to have been selected as a member of the Reward 100. However, the recognition received is truly for the effort and ability of everyone in our team, not just me. Our service offering is delivered by a team approach, so it is fantastic to see us being featured among some big names in the reward and pay arena by being selected for the Reward 100.

At AAB we have evolved our approach, adapting our service offering to suit the changing needs of our clients. As a result, the services we provide in the reward and pay space is constantly growing as we look to deliver a first-class service to our clients. We have seen an increasing demand for services in the global mobility space as well as payroll, employment taxes and of course employee benefits and auto enrolment.

This achievement is as a great testament to the services we offer in the pay and reward space.”

Anderson Anderson & Brown LLP (AAB), one of the UK’s leading independent firm of Chartered Accountants & Business Advisors, has been named as the top dealmakers in Scotland for a 12th consecutive year, after being recognised by the Scottish Business Insider as the accountants having completed the most deals in Scotland each year from 2005 – 2016.

The Scottish Business Insider’s review of the Scottish deals market shows that AAB completed 43 transactions which were publically announced in 2016, 50% more than any other accountancy firm during the same period. Deals in which AAB were involved in 2016 included the disposal of Maritime Assurance & Consulting to Bureau Veritas, the disposal of Sengs Subsea Engineering Solutions (“SENGS”) to Pryme Group and the acquisition of Optocap Holdings by TUV Nord.

Douglas Martin, Head of Corporate Finance at AAB, said “We are delighted to be recognised as the top dealmakers in Scotland for a 12th consecutive year. 2016 saw another challenging year for oil & gas services M&A activity but we continued to deliver an impressive deal flow with a strong increase in deals outwith the energy sector. This fantastic milestone is testament to the tremendous continued support of our clients and contacts and to the hard work and dedication of our exceptionally talented team.”

In terms of current transaction activity, Martin commented “Our deals pipeline remains very healthy with some great transactions being worked on by the team. M&A activity in the oil & gas services sector continues to show gradual signs of recovery which is encouraging. We remain positive about our prospects for the rest of the year given our superb market position and look forward to bringing more deals to fruition during the remainder of 2017.”