Associate Director Private & Trusts Assurance in Milton Keynes

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance.

With over 5,000 people in the UK, and a presence in 150 global markets, we're on an ambitious journey, from great to exceptional, and we need the best people to help us achieve our potential.

NEW GROUND WON’T BREAK ITSELF. Every day our teams help people in businesses and communities to do what is right and achieve their goals.

About the team: Our Private & Trusts Assurance team advises individuals, trustees and estates on a wide range of personal tax matters. Our clients include UK and non-UK resident individuals, entrepreneurs, family office principals, trustees of UK and offshore trusts, and owners of privately held businesses. The team combines a strong compliance and assurance function with a growing advisory capability, and this role sits at the heart of both.

The role: This is a senior technical role with two complementary purposes: ensuring the quality and accuracy of our most complex compliance work, and helping to realise the full advisory potential of our client relationships. You will work closely with a dedicated Director and the wider Private teams.

Key responsibilities:

• Technical review — complex tax returns: You will take responsibility for second-reviewing the most technically demanding and interesting personal tax returns in the portfolio. Examples of the type of areas you would be expected to review include:
• Private equity transactions
• Trust income and gains
• Exempt income and reliefs, including EIS/SEIS claims, pension-related matters and other statutory exemptions
• Residence and domicile elements including the remittance basis, foreign income and gains claims and associated compliance requirements
• Cross-border income, foreign tax credits and double tax treaty claims
• Complex capital gains computations, including business asset disposal relief
• Advisory — identifying and delivering client opportunities: A core part of this role is helping the team to leverage the existing portfolio for advisory work. You will:
• Identify advisory opportunities as they arise from return preparation and review work and technically driven initiatives and bring these to the attention of the client-responsible Director
• Liaise with internal colleagues to support their clients including attending calls and assisting with pitch documents and quotes
• Deliver advisory work across a broad range of personal tax areas, including:
• UK and international residence and domicile
• Double tax treaties and cross-border structuring
• Income extraction strategies for owner-managed businesses and family offices
• Inheritance tax, estate planning including the use of trusts
• Work closely with the dedicated Director and, where relevant, specialists across the firm to ensure that advice is commercially sound and technically robust
• Help to develop and maintain client relationships, supporting the Director in client-facing conversations and written advice
• Team support and development: You will play an active role in supporting the wider team, including:
• Acting as a technical resource for colleagues who have ad hoc questions as they prepare or review tax returns
• Reviewing and providing feedback on work prepared by more junior members of the team including the advisory projects
• Contributing to team knowledge-sharing, including internal training or technical updates where appropriate
• Helping to embed good practice and consistency in the team's approach to complex compliance and advisory work

Skills and experience:

• Technical knowledge — essential: Extensive experience of personal tax compliance, including the preparation or review of complex self-assessment returns
• Strong technical knowledge across income tax, capital gains tax and inheritance tax
• Understanding of trust taxation — both UK and, ideally, non-UK trusts – as it relates to personal tax returns. This role does not include preparation of trust accounts or tax returns.
• Familiarity with non-domicile and international tax matters, including the remittance basis, FIG claims, accessing the transitional repatriation facility and double tax treaty claims
• Experience of private equity-related tax issues — carried interest, co-investment, management arrangements — would be an advantage

• Commercial and client skills: Proven ability to identify advisory angles and translate technical knowledge into practical, client-focused advice
• Experience of contributing to or delivering written advisory work, not just compliance
• Comfortable in client-facing situations, with the ability to communicate complex tax issues clearly to sophisticated but non-technical clients

• People and team: A collaborative working style and a genuine interest in supporting the development of more junior colleagues
• Good judgement about when to escalate and when to take ownership
• An organised approach to managing a varied workload across review, advisory and support responsibilities

Knowing we’re right for you: The culture at Grant Thornton is what sets us apart, we’re known for our inclusive culture and creating environments where all our people can flourish. The things that set you apart, we value them, and this helps us all to perform at our best. Our values are the unwavering principles that shape our daily behaviours and decisions, alongside our drive to do the right thing.

It’s not just about our culture and values, in addition to a competitive salary and reward package, you’ll also get:

• Tailored development programmes and access to coaching
• Flexible bank holidays – allowing you to celebrate the days that are important to you
• Benefits including pension, life assurance and private medical, additional holiday purchasing and health benefits
• Any benefits giving you access to shopping discounts, gym memberships, financial advice
• And more.

How we work: We have a trust-based way of working, driven by responsible people who have the best interests of our firm and our clients at heart. Our how we work framework gives flexibility in where, how, and when we work to deliver the best results for our clients, whilst helping you keep a balance between work and life.

We’re looking for people who can help drive the business forward, who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what’s right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves.