About Us

The VAT Consultancy, which was established by John Crawford in 1991, is the country’s leading independent dedicated VAT practice, giving best advice on all aspects of UK and European indirect tax matters.

The company’s team of qualified experts has proven experience in helping clients save substantial amounts of money, avoid penalties, simplify procedures and improve cashflow. Modern technology enables the practice to keep abreast of the latest developments in legislation to ensure its advice is always accurate.
You can call on the expertise of specialists in:

                Corporate Finance
                Domestic and Commerical Property
                UK and Global VAT Recovery
                Local Authority VAT Issues
                Charity VAT Issues
                Customs Duties
                Intrastat problems
                VAT Fraud Investigations

Our Consultants:

John Crawford
John founded the VAT Consultancy in 1991 and is the Managing Director. His extensive prior professional experience includes 19 years with Customs and Excise and subsequently working as a VAT consultant with a major accountancy firm.

He provides advice and planning guidance for a wide range of clients and has particular expertise in the VAT issues relating to land and property transactions/development, charity exemptions and cross-border trading.

John is also a regular public speaker at industry events for business organisations such as the Chamber of Commerce, ACCA and CIOT.

Email John at: john.crawford@thevatconsultancy.com

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Allison Broadey
Allison gained 13 years experience with Customs and Excise before she moved to professional VAT practice with PricewaterhouseCoopers. She joined the VAT Consultancy in 1999 where she specialises in land and property, charities and partial exemption.

Allison has previously contributed chapters on VAT issues to two tax planning books, "Land Diversification and Planning" and "Equine Tax Planning".

She is the VAT Technical Director at The VAT Consultancy and carries out regular updates for the ACCA and practitioners.
Email Allison at: allison.broadey@thevatconsultancy.com

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Steve McIntyre

Following a career of 19 years with H M Customs & Excise, Steve joined a Big Four Accountancy firm in 1996 prior to moving to The VAT Consultancy in 2003.

As an experienced consultant he provides solutions to a wide range of VAT issues for clients in the corporate sector as well as charities and public sector bodies.

Steve is also an experienced VAT trainer and regularly hosts our seminars and workshops. More recently he has spoken at events for CIPFA.

Over the past six years Steve has specialised in working with Local Authorities, assisting them with issues such as land and property transactions, partial exemption and capital goods scheme problems, leisure outsourcing projects and joint working arrangements with the NHS.

Email Steve at: steve.mcintyre@thevatconsultancy.com

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Peter Baumgardt

Peter spent 20 years with Customs and Excise in London and Bristol principally in the investigative side before moving into private practice as an advisor on VAT issues for businesses and non-profit organisations.

He manages the Bristol office of the VAT Consultancy and serves a client portfolio across a range of sectors in the South West, South Wales and the Midlands. Peter’s particular expertise is in the handling of fraud investigations and assessment appeals.

Email Peter at: peter.baumgardt@thevatconsultancy.com

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Peter Bradshaw

Peter has recently joined The VAT Consultancy and runs our dedicated service for EU and Global VAT recovery. He has successfully recovered millions of pounds for clients.

He brings with him a wealth of experience having spent the last twelve years working in industry managing European and Global VAT compliance issues.

Email Peter at: peter.bradshaw@thevatconsultancy.com

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Zaenia Rogers

Zaenia trained and qualified at of the “big 4” firms of accountants. In 2004, having spent 3 ½ years as a chartered accountant specialising in Corporate Tax, she then decided to move into the world of VAT and joins us from a private practice.

Email Zaenia at: zaenia.rogers@thevatconsultancy.com

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Malcolm Nichols

Malcolm spent over 20 years with HM Customs and Excise including cargo clearance at Heathrow Airport and Inland Excise matters in Guildford. Malcolm left Customs in 1990 for private practice and joined The VAT Consultancy in August 2007 from a top 20 accountancy practice.

Malcolm has contributed sections to an on line reference manual, hosted seminars on various VAT issues and provided articles for publication. Over the past 17 years Malcolm has advised owner managed businesses on a wide range of issues such as construction industry VAT treatment and recovery, partial exemption for property developers and the VAT margin schemes including tour operators. He has successfully represented clients at VAT Tribunals reducing penalties and challenged HMRC over VAT assessments leading to their being withdrawn and subsequently claiming costs.

Email Malcolm at:malcolm.nichols@thevatconsultancy.com

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Graham Miller

Graham has worked for several years within the Financial Sector including specialist Government Departments followed by a number of years with Customs & Excise before joining a Group A and then a Big 4 firm in business development VAT roles.

Graham left the Big 4 and became responsible for commercial restructure and scrutiny of a number of firms and mergers within the Insurance Intermediary sector and has considerable experience within this area.

He joined the VAT Consultancy in November 2006 and opened a new office at Gatwick serving the Home Counties and Central London clients in all sectors but with particular emphasis on the Financial and Insurance sectors.

Email Graham at: graham.miller@thevatconsultancy.com

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Tessa Paul
After five years as a Customs Officer Tessa joined a top firm of accountants as one of their first customs duty consultants. After fifteen years of working for all but one of the “Big 4” firms, and a short spell in industry, Tessa left her post as a senior manager in PricewaterhouseCoopers to work with The VAT Consultancy as their customs duty specialist.

She is an extremely experienced consultant, having worked with companies across a wide range of industry sectors. She deals with individual importers through to multi-national groups of companies, advising on a wide range of customs related issues. Tessa is an experienced “firefighter” in customs duty matters and is frequently involved in liaising directly with Customs on behalf of importers and exporters.

Email Tessa at: tessa.paul@thevatconsultancy.com

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Richard Staunton
Richard spent 10 years in Customs and Excise in London. He then joined a medium-sized accountancy firm based in Somerset for 8 years as one of their VAT consultants, where he dealt in all areas of VAT. Richard then worked as the in-house VAT specialist for Debenhams for just over two years.

Richard enjoys all aspects of VAT but in particular the retail sector. He is based in our Bristol office.

Email Richard at: richard.staunton@thevatconsultancy.com

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