Anna Tollefson Email & Phone Number

Gatwick

Crawley, United Kingdom

I started working in tax in March 2014 and I decided to commence my CTA studies straight away as I knew it would be the quickest (but definitely not the easiest!) means of getting my technical knowledge up to scratch. I passed my awareness (individuals, inheritance tax and VAT) and advanced corporation tax advisory exams in November 2014 and my owner-managed businesses advisory and case study exams in May 2015. It was a really tough year since I was learning new things all the time and it was hard to balance my personal life with the massive amount of time I needed to spend studying in order to pass my exams. Getting my CTA qualification was a huge achievement for me and ultimately it was worth the time and effort it took.I currently specialise in corporate tax, doing both compliance work and advisory projects.On the compliance side, my clients include small owner managed businesses and large groups with international aspects. I have a few clients that I manage, working with trainees to ensure the computations are of a high standard, that the clients are aware of changes in tax legislation that may be of interest to them and that they are reminded of upcoming dates and deadlines.I have been involved in a number of advisory projects, including capital allowances and R&D claims, restructuring advice, transfer of trade and assets vs. purchase of shares, property disposals and advising UK resident, non-UK domiciled individuals. I have also worked on tax due diligence, advising the purchaser. I particularly enjoy advisory work since it is so varied. I use the tax legislation a lot and interpreting it can be a difficult task! On several of these projects I have worked with other tax colleagues from other disciplines as well as tax colleagues overseas.

London, United Kingdom

I joined Grant Thornton in November 2012 after the firm won a number of public sector audit contracts in the South East. I was thrilled to join such a reputable firm and worked hard to quickly integrate myself into the already established Public Sector Assurance (South East) team in Euston and work with my new colleagues.In my first month at Grant Thornton I had my final two CIPFA exams to take and my IPDS to submit. I found out I passed these in January 2013 and was subsequently promoted to Executive in April 2013.At Grant Thornton I worked on some of the same clients as I had at the Audit Commission, and I learnt and applied a new audit methodology and communicated this to them. In addition, I was asked to take on the role of in-charge auditor on a County Council. This is a large Council and I had a team of up to 7 people at one point to manage. The biggest challenge with this audit was the time available to deliver the audit. We completed the final accounts audit in three weeks and met their timeline for signing the accounts. It was a huge achievement for both us and the client on the first year with a new audit approach and it was great to see everyone working together towards this common goal.Following this I was asked to present at client technical seminars on 'de-cluttering' accounts. The aim of this is for clients and auditors to work together to identify unnecessary and immaterial information in the financial statements and remove it. Sometimes local government accounts can be as many as 150 pages long, and removing unnecessary disclosure means there is less for the clients to prepare and less for us to audit. The presentations went well and we had a few interested clients that wanted to take it forward with their accounts.In October - December 2013 I organised a mini-secondment to the Gatwick Corporate Tax team. Following my mini-secondment I returned to audit briefly before I was offered a full time position in the tax team as an Executive.

South London, Surrey And Kent

I joined the Audit Commission as a graduate in 2009, working in the South East. I worked in a team of highly experienced managers and principal auditors who were passionate about the public sector. I learnt a lot about local government and the NHS from them. Studying for my CIPFA qualification cemented this knowledge, through a mixture of technical financial and management accounting modules and pubic sector specific ones. By the time I left the Audit Commission I just had my final two exams left to sit. In addition to financial statement audits we were also responsible for assessing the value for money that these organisation provided in delivering their services. This was an area I particularly enjoyed. I was able to speak to officers from departments outside of the finance teams to discover how they go about setting their budgets and how they make efficiencies while still delivering the services required of them. All the organisations I audited faced huge financial pressures and it was interesting to hear how they were addressing them. In my final year at the Audit Commission I was the in-charge auditor on my clients, which included a Strategic Health Authority, a District Council and a London Borough. This was a steep learning curve for me, as I was required to manage a team of auditors, including interns as well as experienced contractors. I was also required to ensure the audit file was of a high standard and complied with all the relevant ISA requirements while being the key day to day point of contact for my clients. During this final year I also got my first taste of presenting our audit findings to audit committees.