Steve began his career with Accru Rawsons in 2012 as an intermediate accountant. Since then, he’s completed his CA and been promoted to a senior role. Steve says “I really enjoy working closely with the partners at Accru who share their wealth of knowledge and provide a supportive environment which enables me to do my professional and personal best.”
Steve shares this example of how he resolved a complicated tax situation for a client and why he finds his work so rewarding.
About two years ago, we received a website enquiry from a project manager, Jim*, asking for assistance with a complex tax situation. He was clearly in need of an adviser to rely upon.
Jim was working in South East Asia as a project supervisor on a lucrative oil and gas construction contract, while at the same time dealing with major issues back home in Australia – a divorce, overdue tax lodgements spanning several years, tangled tax residency issues and poor professional advice.
Jim’s biggest hurdle was not having a solicitor to deal with – and his ex-wife’s solicitor was a family member! No consideration had been given to the tax and accounting factors either, with the end result being Jim’s assets were at risk, particularly his self-managed superfund. There were potentially big problems to come in future if he did not sort things out.
Our first step was to help Jim obtain all relevant information from Australia and overseas, a delicate process as he did not know where to begin. We started by asking a series of questions to help him collate all the relevant documents. We were then able to analyse the situation, outline our findings and discuss them through various meetings and calls. From there, we decided on the best approach for each matter, finally reviewing Jim’s overall position to make sure all issues were attended to and the best outcomes achieved. We then put the plan into action. It was a lengthy process and hard work.
Jim was very happy and thankful to us, not only for resolving his tax but also some of the difficulties of his personal situation. He is currently completing what will be his last project before retirement. He has told me that he can now live his life with so much less mental burden and is able to sleep well at night knowing we have taken care of everything.
For me personally, working on Jim’s case gave me a huge sense of personal satisfaction. Each individual client is unique, it feels great being their go-to person, getting to know their specific needs and making a difference to their lives. Being able to help clients in our line of business is something I love about my job with Accru.
*Client name changed to protect identity