From the 1 October, Rickard Keen joined with Bird Luckin, who are based in Chelmsford.  The new firm continues to offer a full range of accountancy, tax and business services across Essex and is now known as Rickard Luckin Limited. Following the merger, two key services that Rickard Luckin are able to offer is VAT consultancy and Corporate Finance expertise.  

About Ian Marrow – VAT Associate

Although a Lancastrian by birth, Ian has spent his VAT career in the East and South East of England. This has encompassed being an Officer and High Officer of HMRC at the City of London VAT office, working for one of the "Big Four" accountancy firms and also at a VAT only advisory business. He has recently joined the Rickard Luckin team to provide VAT planning, consultancy and compliance for all aspects of the tax.

Two examples of why getting VAT advice is vital:

Due to a tax point error HMRC were to issue a client with a penalty of £4,666, as they saw it as “deliberate without concealment”. When we pointed out the delayed tax rules meant the penalty was £84 (even if deliberate); HMRC decided “this time” not to impose the penalty.

A client and its subsidiary wanted to VAT group. However, our calculations showed that the value of exempt supplies by the VAT group meant the VAT “saved” on the intra VAT group charge would be less than the VAT lost on the irrecoverable overheads of the VAT group, so VAT grouping would be more expensive.

About David Enser – Corporate Finance Director

David joined as a partner in 2002 from a top six firm and has been a practising Chartered accountant in Chelmsford, Essex since 1990. Prior to this, David was a Corporate Finance partner in a top twenty firm of Chartered Accountants.  He is one of the region's leading experts on corporate finance and a founding member of the Essex Corporate Finance Group.

Our corporate finance offering encompasses transaction support services including due diligence, business planning, fund raising, valuations, succession planning and structuring and negotiating business acquisitions, disposals and mergers and where shareholder disputes have arisen. Transactions sizes vary from a few hundred thousand pounds to around £50m.

Typical examples of transactions undertaken include the following:

• Valuation, negotiation, business planning and fund raising for a £5m mbo.
• Joint due diligence exercise for client and funding bank on a £2m acquisition target.
• Advising, support and shareholder circular for a £9m company sale
• Due diligence and transaction support on a £700,000 company purchase