Architecture
Q&A with Gordon Haxton of Haxton Chartered Accountants
While most of our clients come to us directly, this isn’t always the case. We have something of a referral scheme established with a trusted accountancy firm, Haxton Chartered Accountants.
If they have a client that they think could benefit from some tax advice, they refer them over to Wilby Jones.
We sat down with Gordon Haxton, founder of Haxton Chartered Accountants, to discuss the ins and outs of our long-standing partnership relationship. Over to you, Gordon…
Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your business?
I am Gordon Haxton, founder and partner at Haxton Chartered Accountants.
I founded my company over 32 years ago, and we have many loyal client relationships. We work with businesses from many sectors to provide general accounting services, including tax returns, management accounting, and financial business consultancy.
Can you explain the relationship between Haxton Chartered Accountants and Wilby Jones?
I was first introduced to Simon around 10 years ago through a mutual client.
We provide general tax advice but whenever we receive a complex tax query about something like EMIs, IHT or R&D tax relief, we always recommend that our clients get in touch with Wilby Jones.
Not only does Simon have a fantastic knowledge of all things tax-related, he excels at communicating it in a way that is accessible to everyone, without ever being patronising. He is extremely understanding, and helps our clients feel comfortable, which is obviously especially important to us.
Over the last 10 years, we have referred many clients to Wilby Jones.
How does the process of referring a client to Wilby Jones for R&D tax relief work?
Although we’re not R&D tax relief specialists, our experience of working with Wilby Jones has given us an increased understanding of R&D.
When we are getting to know a new client and finding out about their business, we can identify when we think their work may involve R&D. In those cases, we recommend that our client gets in touch with either Simon or Ben.
What is it like working with Wilby Jones?
Working with Wilby Jones for the last 10 years has been an excellent experience. It allows us to provide an extra service to our clients, which we know they appreciate.
How do your clients find working with Wilby Jones?
They are always very happy with the solutions offered by Simon and his team.
Thank you, Gordon.
Ben Thompson
Ben is one of our senior sector specialists leading the Engineering team. He conducts the technical interviews with product developers, software developers and manufacturing clients to ensure the details of their work is understood and all areas that have potential to claim a tax credit through the R&D scheme are identified. During his career at Wilby Jones, Ben has been involved in over 250 R&D claims and helped businesses claim across a range of industries. Over the course of the last year, his engineering team claimed over £6 million for our clients and aim to always deliver high quality tax advice. Before starting work at Wilby Jones, Ben gained a first-class honours degree from the University of Lincoln, with his dissertation focusing on computational traffic flow analysis. Having joined our graduate scheme in 2020, he is now an ATT qualified tax advisor and aims to complete the ATT/CTA pathway to become a full chartered tax advisor within the next year. He enjoys the variety of the work undertaken by each of his clients, and learning about new concepts directly from the professionals researching them and innovating within their industry every day. Whether talking to aerospace professionals or nuclear engineers, there is always something new to learn and it is exciting to see the trends across all industries appear during conversations with clients. A keen guitarist, Ben teaches in the Norfolk area and has played for the last 18 years – Look out for him playing in several local bands around the city.