Post Office planning tax advice

The market for high-street tax advisers faces its biggest shake-up ever under radical plans for franchised outlets being considered by the Post Office and other private sector operators. A wide-ranging revamp of operations at the Post Office will see it offering a range of financial services, including tax advice, within the next 18 months.

Plans to launch a tax return service for self-assessment at all but the smallest sub-post offices are under active consideration, Accountancy Age can reveal.

The news comes just days after a firm of tax advisers announced plans to float on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) to fund a nationwide chain of franchised tax outlets.

According to Geoffrey Adams, director of the British Taxpayers Association, the flotation could raise up to u1m to cover the cost of a marketing campaign to develop a network of accountants and tax agents. The BTA, set up in 1919 by ex-Inland Revenue staff, operates two offices, in London and Sussex, with 14 staff and 2,500 clients.

Adams said: ‘We hope to attract around 30 firms around the country, each in unique geographical areas. They would run all their new self-assessment clients under the BTA banner and benefit from an extensive marketing campaign.

‘We aim to deal with up to 75,000 returns a year from next April.’

On Tuesday, the BTA launched its self-assessment business on OFEX, the privately-run matched bargains stock market. Adams said this was a precursor to an AIM flotation later this year.

Gerry Hart, ex-president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and managing director of the Tax Team, a franchised network of tax advisers, said the Post Office’s plans posed a real threat.

He said: ‘This would frighten the life out of me. But you have to ask whether a basic form-filling service is all taxpayers need. Many want an adviser to identify potential problems in the forms rather than just be reactive.’

English ICA tax faculty chairman Simon McKie, commented: ‘This has certainly got mileage in it. Franchises like this are very common in the US.’

McKie said some chartered accountants might not meet the needs of this new market. He said: ‘Small firms will have difficulty because a mass service requires an investment in IT and many won’t have the necessary capital.

‘But our members have to ask whether it requires three years of advanced training to bash numbers into a computer.’