Client Tax Manager Emma Cheeseman has recently joined the private client team at Charter Tax. She was most recently at a London-based firm, where she spent ten years working with a varied client base of high net worth families and their business interests.
“My background is in mixed practice, supporting clients with all their accounting and tax needs – whether this is their annual self-assessment tax return, their company accounts or their trust’s inheritance tax returns,” says Emma. “Having this breadth of experience is particularly useful when advising families who hold their assets in a variety of entities, being able to holistically consider their structure and needs, and ensure that advising on one aspect does not create an issue in another area.”
Emma, who is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and the Chartered Institute of Taxation, says she particularly enjoys private client work due to the variety.
“No two clients are the same, no two days are ever the same,” she explains.
At school, Emma says she didn’t know what to pursue as a career, so she decided to study her favourite subjects at school – history and German – at university, hoping she would have a better idea afterwards.
“Graduating in 2009, when options were still limited by the financial crisis, I decided to take a year out,” says Emma. “I went to China to teach English for an academic year and, on my return, I found a local role as a receptionist and bookkeeper in Tunbridge Wells, whilst I considered my next steps.”
She continues: “I discovered that I enjoyed the bookkeeping role. Also, exposure to the value being added by the external accountant in terms of helping the business owners to run and expand their business made me realise that I wanted to be an accountant. I discovered there is far more to the role than simply preparing the annual accounts.”
Emma says that, from a client’s perspective, Charter Tax stands out as having highly qualified and professional teams, who are able to provide personalised advice, tailored to their specific needs.
“From an employee perspective, I have been overwhelmed by how supportive everyone has been since I joined,” she adds. “Even though I have only worked from home so far, there is an evident culture of openness and collaboration, which has helped me to settle in. I just can’t wait to be able to meet my new colleagues in person.”
When she’s not at work, Emma usually enjoys entertaining friends and family and is known, she says, to be a feeder!
“During lockdown, I’ve taken the opportunity to practice lots of new recipes on my husband, ready for when I can invite people over again,” she says. “At the weekend, I can usually be found walking my dog on the North Downs or curled up with a book in front of the fire.”
