A Newcastle solicitor has taken over as chair of the North East arm of the UK’s leading trade body for tax professionals.
Alice Clewes is now responsible for leading the regional work of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), a national organisation which aims to promote education for taxation professionals and achieve a more efficient and less complex tax system for all.
Alice, who is a partner in the private client department at Hay & Kilner Law Firm, will serve a two-year term in office and takes over the role from Mitch Johnson of the Newcastle office of advisory firm EY.
Originally from the south west, Alice moved to the North East to join Hay & Kilner 13 years ago and, unusually, is dual qualified as both a solicitor and a Chartered Tax Adviser.
She is also a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and advises clients on all aspects of private client work including wills, trusts, inheritance tax, succession planning and estate administration.
The North East arm of the Chartered Institute of Taxation draws its regional members from many of the region’s best known professional services firms, with membership being earned by examination, and is a joint branch with the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT), with some regional members being part of both organisations.
Having conducted all of its activities online for the last 18 months, Alice is hoping to gradually reintroduce face-to-face educational seminars, speaker events and networking sessions in the new year.
She says: “The CIOT sets the standard for tax education and professional expertise, and it’s an honour to be taking on the role of leading the North East’s highly impressive community of taxation practitioners.
“The organisation has adapted well to the new ways of working that we’ve all had to come to terms with since the start of last year, with our online events enabling us to widen access to the information we share on the latest developments in our sector.
“Our meetings have always provided an excellent forum for the region’s accountants, lawyers and other professionals to come together and build relationships that could be useful to their client work, and it’ll be good to begin to bring everyone together once again.”