Meet the team: Dan Kelly
Dan Kelly, Senior Manager, gives us an insight into his daily role and shares his personal views on the future of employment tax and human capital sector.
How long have you been working in tax and how did you get into it?
As is the case for a lot of people, I somewhat stubbled into a career in tax having been less than focused on what I wanted to do after University whilst finishing my degree. My degree was in Physics, but I did not want to pursue a career in science at that time. I did however want to work with numbers so upon returning home to Essex after university I applied for a number of trainee/junior finance positions at different companies in any role that seemed viable (I needed a job and quick!). Thankfully, I was succeeded in getting a job as a tax assistant at EY in their Global Mobility tax team. 22 years later I have spent my whole career working in tax so although it may not have been planned, the career choice I made (or got lucky with) has worked out well really!
What is your favourite thing about working in the Human Capital team at PKF?
I know most people say this, but my favourite thing is the people I work with on a daily basis. As someone who likes to talk, being able to meet people from different backgrounds, work in differing sectors and who have differing needs is the part of the job that I enjoy the most and get the most satisfaction from
Looking ahead, how do you see the Human Capital tax landscape evolving?
It feels very much like employees occupy the seat of power at present and many employees have come to expect a high degree of flexibility in how they work. Whilst this is great of employees, many companies lack the corporate polices and processes needed to effectively manage a population of employees who may all work in slightly different ways and to whom the tax rules may apply differently depending on their personal situation. Applying the tax rules correctly to any expenses a company might pay to employees is becoming increasingly difficulty which increases a company’s risk in this regard. This in turn will draw increased focus from HMRC around employee expenses leading to more enquires/information requests being issued by HMRC, more resources needed within companies to manage compliance with some fairly outdated rules before the rules themselves are no doubt reviewed and changed in order to “simplify” them in the context of modern working practices.
What does your role entail day to day?
Lots of talking and lots of thinkinng! Whether its speaking to clients, providing technical guidance on a specific topic to Harry or Shaun or speaking to a colleague in another team – a large part of my day is spent talking to people. There’s also a lot of thinking required in conjunction with reading of guidance/legislation in order to work out what the considerations are for a certain situation.
There also a lot of typing involved on a daily basis responding to emails or write up advice for clients, but this is the part of the job I like least, so prefer to focus on the other parts of my role I enjoy more as best describing what I do.
What do you like doing outside of work?
Most of my spare time is spent either walking my dog or running around after my 8 year old son. When I do have some spare time to myself then I like game online. I only started gaming a year ago (so I really am quite a late comer to the gaming world) but I get a lot of enjoyment and satisfaction from the challenge and competitive aspect of the games I play.
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