Smith & Williamson hires new VAT Director, Hannah Dobson

Smith & Williamson, the leading accountancy, tax and investment management group, has recruited Hannah Dobson as a VAT director.

Based in the firm’s City office, Hannah joins the successful team led by Martin Sharratt and John Voyez; she will be responsible for developing new business in key sectors, with a particular focus on the retail, recruitment and leisure sectors.

“VAT is critical to all businesses as it’s essentially a bottom-line figure that feeds straight into the profit margin,” said Hannah. “Businesses outside the FTSE 100 generally have little or no in-house VAT resource, but Smith & Williamson is well placed to assist large and medium-sized companies in need of its expertise.”

“The firm’s client base seemed an excellent fit given my previous experience as Director of the Midcap VAT team at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). Moreover, I can provide a first-class service that is competitively priced, which is particularly important at a time when the Treasury is clamping down on what it perceives to be avoidance, and specialist advice is needed.”

Prior to joining Smith & Williamson, Hannah spent 11 years at PwC, where she was involved in a number of initiatives including an ongoing HM Revenue & Customs investigation into the VAT liability of carbon trading. She also led a Tribunal case to get a zero-rating for a well-known ‘smoothie’ manufacturer on the basis that smoothies fall outside the definition of a ‘beverage’ for VAT purposes.

Hannah trained at both Coopers & Lybrand and Ernst & Young.