Member Article

‘Boomerang’ KPMG tax director returns to Yorkshire

Graham Steele has relocated 10,500 miles to return to Yorkshire and join KPMG’s Leeds office as a research & development (R&D) tax director, leading the firm’s Innovation Reliefs and Incentives Group across the North, after seven years in the firm’s Sydney office.

While ‘Down Under’ he advised on R&D across a large mix of industries, from financial services to software, and renewable energy to mining. His experiences included working at a remote mine site in the Northern Territories, conducting meetings in the nearby town’s only pub.

Originally from Yorkshire, Steele has returned to his roots to focus on the numerous positive changes taking place in the UK tax landscape. He said: “It is an exciting time to come back to the tax scene here, notwithstanding the subject being high on the news agenda, because great leaps are being made in innovation policy.

“Increasingly the UK tax system is using new reliefs and incentives to foster innovation and promote the economy, which are good news for Yorkshire. The introduction of the new Patent Box regime, the R&D Expenditure Credit and the new Creative Sector Reliefs are prime examples. They present a great opportunity for the region’s companies which have a rich history of innovation and technological bravery.”

“The new R&D Expenditure Credit enables companies to claim a taxable credit of 10% of their qualifying R&D expenditure, which is refundable if there are tax losses. This will create a great incentive for businesses to undertake and commercialise R&D, as well as encouraging international firms to locate here.

According to KPMG, now is a crucial time for businesses to ensure they are capturing all the entitlements available to them. There is a choice regarding the R&D regime most likely to be beneficial and there are also decisions to be made around accounting and internal processes in the area.

Steele concluded: “These new opportunities and the decisions they trigger for companies means that while the weather might not be as good in Yorkshire, from a tax environment perspective it’s great to be back.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gatehouse .