Guy Barrand has recently written an article published in Indirect Tax Voice about BLT’s 25 years in Indirect Tax recruitment – please click here to see the article.

Is Simon Cowell right to be worried about the threat from ‘The Voice’?

I think he is; ‘Britain's Got Talent’ is tired and out-dated.

The BBC has not only captured The Voice, it’s captured the nation’s voice or, more importantly, its mood. As I watched last weekend’s showings of The Voice I was struck not only of course by the huge talent of everyone competing but - and competing is the key word - they were competing together; the contestants had to share the floor and work with each other to be their best, proving that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Similarly the judges had to share the glory and the pain. Turning over to Britain’s Got Talent, the contrast was clear. Simon had done his best to keep up and wisely ensured that a great young talent would be the first act the channel-hopping audience saw. However, it wasn’t long before a counterpoint appeared and I was faced with the usual embarrassment of watching TV that is simply cruel and voyeuristic. The Voice is reflective a new collaborative culture; Britain’s Got Talent is the equivalent of the worst of the last decade of ruthless “every man for himself” and “laugh at the losers” style of commercial exploitation. I turned over again and found The 1970s: How did the mood of that decade compare? Who can remember?

The wait is finally over! It is with great pleasure that we announce the shortlisted nominations for the Indirect Tax Awards 2011. The calibre of nominations was exceptionally high this year and each of the categories were hotly contested. Over a thoroughly enjoyable lunch, tough decisions had to be made by judges, so congratulations to the successful shortlisted entries and commiserations to all those who this year have been unsuccessful. We would like to thank everyone for their nominations and for their continued support of the awards.

We at BLT would also like to take this opportunity to extend our thanks to the judges for their invaluable input and time: Mike Arnold, Nick Burgin, Michael Conlon QC, Katie McGavigan, Chris Needham & Greg Sinfield. We would also like to thank the sponsors, The Institute of Indirect Taxation, represented at the judging session by John Voyez.

The shortlist is as follows:

Best In-house Indirect Tax Expert or Team

Caterpillar
Nomura
Volkswagen

Rising Star within Indirect Tax

Ruth Corkin, James Cowper
Debbie Hannon, Ernst & Young
Lorraine Young, Menzies

Best Indirect Tax Consultancy Team

Centurion VAT Specialists
Deloitte Real Estate VAT Team
KPMG VAT Process & Technology Team

Outstanding Contribution to Indirect Tax

Roderick Cordara QC
John Crawford, The VAT Consultancy
Alan Maher, Centurion VAT Specialists

Congratulations to these once again. The winning entries in each of these categories will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on 13th October.

The LexisNexis Tax Awards made their debut in 2001 and quickly became widely recognised as a standard of excellence within the tax sector. It’s a major annual event in the industry’s calendar and is considered by many to be the Oscars of the Tax world! It’s a glittering awards ceremony, held at the Hilton Hotel on Park Lane and usually attended by around 700 tax professionals and those linked to the sector through the accountancy and legal professions, government, charities and support industries. It’s a great opportunity to catch up with people they may not have seen all year, whilst celebrating the achievements of friends and colleagues.

This year the event was held on the 26th May and I think it’s fair to say that everyone had a fantastic night. There was a great atmosphere , undoubtedly as a result of more confidence in the market, and the sense of having survived a tough couple of years. We started with a drinks reception overlooking Hyde Park, followed by a meal in the Grand Ballroom. Entertainment was provided by the comedian Sean Lock and the awards were presented by Natasha Kaplinsky. For those wanting to party into the early hours, the bar stayed open and there was a charity casino and a disco. Quite a line up, I’m sure you’ll agree!

BLT has sponsored the Best VAT team award since 2001and we are proud to celebrate the achievement of the winners and nominees. This year the McGrigors VAT team was the well deserved winner of the award. The team has been in the forefront of group litigation, and right at the heart of some very important VAT issues.

We’d also like to congratulate Graham Elliot, a VAT specialist who was awarded Tax Writer of the year. Graham was praised as a writer who does not just accept the status quo, and who manages to make VAT interesting!

One of our New Year’s Resolutions is to have a database tidy-up!

Have you heard from us recently? If not, it’s likely that we don’t have your current home email address and postal address on file. You may be currently registered with us as looking for a new role, or you may have registered with us in the past (but we have on file that you are not actively looking). We may even have placed you in your last role.

Of course, if we have you down as not currently looking, being proud of our reputation for providing ethical recruitment solutions as the market leading Indirect Tax recruiters in the UK, that means you will not get phone calls from us telling you about new roles. However, we would hate for you to miss out on all the other benefits of being part of the BLT network. For instance, if we don’t have an up to date home email address for you, that could well mean that you don’t receive our salary surveys or irregular newsletters.

We would welcome the opportunity to update your contact details on our database, so do feel free to drop us a note to vat@blt.co.uk with your home email address and postal address if you feel we may not have the right details on file; that way you can ensure that you will be kept up to date with any useful information on market trends that we produce from time to time.

Whichever way, we’d love to hear what you’ve been up to, and of course, if ever you are in a position to do any recruiting yourself, then we would keen to help (and a big thank you to all those who regularly recommend us – it’s very much appreciated.)

Wishing you all a very successful 2011.