Acting for OMBs Conference

James joined Mercia in October 2022 as VAT trainer and consultant. His role involves writing technical material as well as devising and delivering VAT training courses. James has a wide experience of VAT and indirect tax, beginning his VAT career with HM Customs & Excise (as it then was) before moving to the private sector in 1995 and gaining his CTA qualification. Latterly, he had VAT partner and head of VAT roles in Grant Thornton and Mazars. James was actively involved with the Charity Tax Group for a number of years and has presented on VAT topics for the Charity Finance Group.

Outside of work, music remains a keen interest. Aside from playing jazz on the tenor sax, James is a regular member of the trumpet section of the Leeds Project Big Band.

James is an experienced trainer, file reviewer and consultant. Having previously worked as an Audit Technical Manager at a UK Top 10 firm, he now delivers training courses on behalf of various professional accountancy bodies in the UK, as well as providing in-house training for accounting and audit firms. 

His specialisms are financial reporting (both UK GAAP and IFRS), audit and he has a particular interest in the charity and academies sectors. In addition to training, James undertakes both cold and hot file reviews for audit practices, ranging from single partner to UK Top 50 firms.

Robert qualified as a chartered accountant with Cooper Brothers & Co in 1972, following which he moved to Financial Training where he ran their specialist tax course and tax consultancy divisions. After 20 years with Financial Training, Robert decided to return to professional practice and became a partner in Adam Broke & Co, which firm subsequently merged with Mercer & Hole where he was a partner for 12 years, combining private client work with speaking engagements. He is a former President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation, was on the Editorial Boards of both 'Taxation' and 'Simon's Taxes' for many years and, in 2013, he became the Capital Gains Tax correspondent for 'Private Client Business'.

Peter Rayney practices as an independent tax consultant. His main specialisms are corporate tax, company reorganisations, corporate finance tax (including company sales and acquisitions) SDLT, IHT and all aspects of owner managed business taxation. Before he set up his own practice in 2009, Peter worked at BDO as a tax consultancy partner and latterly as the firm’s National Tax Technical Partner.

He is a widely-recognised tax author and lecturer and regularly contributes to the professional press. He has now won Taxation's 'Tax Writer of the Year' award an unprecedented three times in 2002, 2014 and 2018. Peter also received the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Taxation by an Individual’ award at the 2022 Taxation Awards. Peter is the immediate past President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and previously chaired the ICAEW Tax Faculty Technical Committee.