Centurion Team News

As October draws to a close, the clocks have gone back, various parts of the UK are in a period of “lockdown” or “firebreak” and we have more tiers to manage than the average wedding cake I thought a post from us on how VAT & Environmental Tax life is continuing at Centurion would be timely. Despite all that’s been thrown at us since March our Centurion team: Andrea Brindley, Julie Rawlinson-Smith, Julie Williams, Louise Gray, Merle Bethell, Mike Trotman and myself have coped, as you all have, juggling the working from home, running a business, supporting our fellow team members, with family life. Sadly, the lives of some of our families have been touched by the Corona Virus as I’m sure some of you reading this will have been too. The spirit of resilience across our whole team has been superb. Yes there have been moments where you do wonder at a personal level whether the light at the end of the tunnel is just an oncoming train, but through sharing our thoughts and feelings at the weekly virtual team meetings we’ve cemented the value of being a close knit team of likeminded individuals who genuinely care about not just each other but continuing to be there to support our clients. In between lockdowns we even managed two socially distanced picnics at Tredegar Park, a local National Trust property, to celebrate a birthday and to be honest to have the pleasure of a face to face conversation away from the computer screens for a couple of hours.

On the work front we’ve not been off-line for a day and if anything the increased use of technology to connect with our clients and networks has created new work opportunities for us despite the “hunkering down” that some client sectors have experienced. Thinking about it this is my fourth “recession” in a 35+ year VAT career and as a business we follow the principle we adopted in 2008 which is that as our reputation for the delivery of high quality VAT – and now Environmental Tax – support and advice expands, being able to deliver that support without the cost base of our larger competitors can only enhance our value to those who need help when these taxes get complicated - so let’s keep ensuring we get that news out there!

Technology has increased our accessibility – a recent Get VAT Ready for Brexit Webinar we ran had an early riser (430am – now that’s keen) from Boston, USA joining the session as well as a delegate from Italy. With infrequent visits to the office by the team our carbon footprint has reduced across the board and with a move to new offices we took advantage to reduce our paper based storage – now that was a challenge to paper fiends like me! One thing that is noticeable across the team is the increased canine engagement in our online team meetings. There’s now only 3 of the team without a doggy companion on our calls – my old horse can’t join in I’m afraid so I’m one of the dog free attendees.  

Life therefore is going on at Centurion as it is across the UK – “this too will pass” – is a phrase that I’m oft heard to say and can be sometimes hard to remember, but it is true. So no VAT technical tips in this missive, no warnings of care required out there on the VAT front just a heartfelt note from all of us at Centurion that in reading this you feel a little bit of normality is out there and that you all continue to stay well and take care.

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