Tax Associate Review

Over the course of three years I have worked across the tax department including: preparation of personal and corporation tax returns, share scheme reporting, employment tax reporting, transfer pricing, and EIS advance assurance applications. I have also had the chance to get involved in some advisory projects and bid proposals.

I have gone from knowing almost nothing about tax to having a good working knowledge of many aspects of the UK tax system. I am much more confident working with excel and other applications. I have had the chance to work closely with clients, including fee negotiations and giving tax advice.

I have had the chance to work with some really smart and interesting people who want to see me succeed. I have been given opportunities to work on interesting projects and have learned alot. However, the overall culture is highly bureaucratic, with many processes to be followed and is overall too risk averse. Too much time has been filled with repetitive administrative work.

The programme is very well structured. I have been on a rotation through various tax streams and am developing a well rounded knowledge of the sector. There is also the chance to obtain ACA/CTA dual certification. The internal tax training programme is excellent. There were some slight hiccups at the beginning with my training contract, but all has gone smoothly since.

I have a good amount of study leave for each exam, although I still need to take annual leave to revise to have enough time to fit work and study. My line manager has been excellent, and people are generally supportive. I do however feel that especially during working from home period due to covid, more could be done to ensure that junior team members are getting the right training and experience.

BPP is an excellent training provider. Tutors are of a high standard, most with many years of experience. They are good at answering questions and giving extra help where necessary. It feels like they take pride in getting students through the exams. College also provides a nice break from work.

The qualification is absolutely essential to the role and provides a great foundation for future success. Not all aspects are particularly relevant to me as a tax advisor, but ACA gives a solid foundation in accounting and business as a whole, and CTA is extremely applicable to my day job.

BDO offers the opportunity to take up to 10 days per year for volunteering/corporate social responsibility, which is great. However I feel that not enough is done to encourage socialising and team building outside of work. The opportunities have been limited, and what is available has not been particularly of interest to me.

Yes

I would recommend BDO as a good alternative to the Big 4 accountancy firms. However, having previously worked at a smaller firm, I do feel that the overall environment and culture is too corporate and bureaucratic for my personal taste. However, there is no doubt that it is overall a good organisation to work for with many opportunities.

Make sure that you do your research on the firm before applying and can talk specifically about why you applied for the role you did. It should be easy to reach out to current employees via social networks. At assessment days make sure to assert yourself and be confident, although the most dominant individual rarely makes the best impression. BDO does like to employ people from diverse backgrounds which is a great thing.