Tony Austin	Tom McCrone
	Stuart Brodie	Russell Moore
	Roger Chester	Charles Nall
	Scott Craig	Bill Saunders
	Helen Donoghue	Kate Sayer
	Steve Hodgetts	Catriona Scrimgeour
	Debbie Jennings	Jenny Simpson
	Bill Lewis	Alan Thomson
	Steve McCrindle	Anne Wilson

Tony Austin Tony Austin is a Tax Partner at Mazars LLP with over 25 years’ experience as a tax adviser. He specialises in advising charities on all matters relating to direct taxation, including tax efficient giving, trading, capital gains, property transactions and tax exemptions and writes and lectures on these subjects. Tony is a visiting lecturer on charity taxation at CASS Business School and also provides technical advice to the Charities Tax Group (CTG) on direct taxation and Gift Aid.
Stuart Brodie Stuart Brodie is a Director and Head of the VAT Practice, Scotland and Northern Ireland at Grant Thornton. Stuart joined Grant Thornton in July 2004 having spent 6 1/2 years in the Deloitte & Touche VAT practice. Stuart specialises in advising partially exempt bodies - financial institutions, educational bodies and charities - on mitigating the cost of VAT. Stuart has advised on the VAT implications on a wide range of charitable projects, including the provision of welfare services, the use of the VAT "cultural exemption", VAT efficient capital expenditure, the application of zero-ratings and the Lennartz principle, and carrying out partial exemption and business / non-business calculations.
Roger Chester Roger joined the Board of CFDG in 2005. He has been in the sector for 25 years. In that time he has worked for University of Warwick Students Union, Hestia Housing Association and Birmingham Mind, before becoming Head of Finance and Administration for Lionheart, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Benevolent Fund Ltd). Roger is a trustee of the Charity Finance Directors’ Group and CITRA. He regularly writes for charity press and presents at a variety of third sector events.
Scott Craig Scott is Scott Moncrieff’s specialist VAT partner and is responsible for all of the VAT services provided by the firm. He is regularly engaged by other professional advisors to provide stand-alone VAT consultancy advice. Scott is a member of the Institute of Indirect Tax and the VAT Practitioners Group. In his free time Scott enjoys playing golf and embarking on “seasonal” fitness drives. With his passion for motorcycles and rugby taking more of a spectator role these days he is beginning to develop a taste for good food and fine wine.
Helen Donoghue Helen has worked on the issue of charity taxation for over twenty years. She is currently the Director of the Charities’ Tax Group (CTG), set up in 1982 to make representations to the UK Government on charity taxation and it has since become the leading voice for the sector on this issue. She was involved in the formation of ECCVAT in 1992. ECCVAT provides a forum for charities and NGOs to work together to research the impact of VAT and other taxes on the work of NGOs and to make representations to the EU institutions on behalf of the sector.
Steve Hodgetts Steve has worked in VAT for the last 20 years. He has been a partner in Baker Tilly since 1998. He has national responsibility within Baker Tilly for the delivery of VAT services to the charitable sector. He is a founder member of the Baker Tilly Charities & Education Group which was formed several years ago to steer and support services to the sector. He has represented several clients at Tribunal and has created several diverse precedents in the sector relating to membership organisations, fundraising within students unions, improvements to a cathedral and off street car parking! He is particularly interested in property development and is currently advising several charitable clients on VAT reliefs to both residential and non-residential buildings. He is dealing with a number of cases relating to VAT recovery using the Lennartz principles.
Debbie Jennings Debbie is a senior VAT Manager in London and a member of Grant Thornton’s national charities and not-for-profit group. She specialises in providing VAT advice to charities and not-for-profit organisations, and has over twelve years’ experience in this area. She has worked for Grant Thornton for over seven years, qualified as a Chartered Tax Adviser with Deloitte, and started her career as a VAT inspector at HM Revenue and Customs. Debbie has carried out VAT planning reviews for a wide range of clients including the British Museum, SSFA, the Teenage Cancer Trust, the Disabilities Trust and the Institution of Civil Engineers. Debbie is also a member of the Charity Tax Group and lectures and writes on VAT for the charity sector on a regular basis.
Bill Lewis Bill advises on all aspects of taxation affecting charities, including particular expertise of reviewing the VAT structure of charities to maximise VAT efficiency and VAT and property construction and property leases to reduce VAT bills. Bill has many years of experience regarding PAYE taxes, in particular PAYE investigations, expenses policies, and employed/self employed status issues. He has conducted a number of gift aid reviews and has negotiated with HMRC on gift aid audits and has advised charities on making use of tax exemptions and using of trading subsidiaries. Bill’s pro bono work includes acting as chairman of Hemingfords’ Regatta, treasurer to Hemingford United Football Club, auditor of Cromwell District Scouts, Nobles Field Trust and St Ives Town Rowing club and tax advisor to The Prostate Cancer Charity.
Tom McCrone Tom McCrone, a tax partner, is a former Inspector of Taxes who joined Wylie & Bisset in 1997. He has wide experience of all aspects of corporate and personal taxation and provides tax planning and compliance advice to a wide variety of businesses including a number of charities. Tom speaks at seminars and workshops on taxation matters and provides articles on taxation for a number of publications. He was a lecturer and examiner in taxation for The Society of Law Accountants under the auspices of The Law Society of Scotland and is a member of the UK200 Group Tax Panel.
Russell Moore  A partner at the London office of Saffery Champness, Russell is wholly dedicated to the voluntary sector and is one of the leading VAT advisers to charities and not-for-profit organisations in the UK. Russell has secured numerous multi-million pound refunds for leading charities across the UK including RNLI, Cancer Research UK, Oxfam, WWF UK, Amnesty International and the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Russell has advised on many leading cases heard before the VAT Tribunal and High Court and was the advisor to the Children’s Society in their landmark High Court ruling in 2005 which has enabled all charities to partially recover VAT on fundraising costs. In addition to his responsibilities with the firm, Russell is a keen supporter of Plymouth Argyle, listens to punk rock and likes to spend time with his family.
Charles Nall Charles joined the Board of the CFDG in 2006. He is Corporate Services director at the Children’s Society, having joined as Finance and Administration Director. Prior to that he took an MBA at Cranfield and was Assistant Director at The Wolfson Foundation. More recently with NSPCC, he set up charITyshare. He is Chairman of the Charities’ Consortium. Charles has served on the Policy Development Working Group, drafting the sector’s response to the PPF Levy and to the EU’s proposals for the sector on money laundering and terrorism.
Bill Saunders Bill has over 23 years’ VAT experience. He joined Baker Tilly 6 years ago as a Senior VAT Manager from PricewaterhouseCoopers where he spent 11 years and was with HM Revenue & Customs for seven years prior to that. Bill has considerable experience advising charities on business/non-business and partial exemption issues and has set up a number of business/non-business and partial exemption methods for charities. Bill has represented clients at the VAT tribunal. He is currently negotiating with Customs for a number of charity clients following claims made under the Lennartz mechanism.
Kate Sayer Kate Sayer has been with Sayer Vincent for over 20 years, after qualifying as a chartered accountant and experience with an international firm of accountants. She advises on a range of finance and tax issues, such as trading and VAT. Kate also leads training and facilitates workshops. She has a deep knowledge of charity governance, law, VAT and tax law relating to charities, risk issues and implementing strategies. Kate has written several books on charity finance including A Practical Guide to Charity Accounting, A Practical Guide to Financial Management for Charities and A Practical Guide to VAT for Charities. Kate is an active member of the Charities’ Tax Reform Group and is helping to pilot an approach to recovering VAT for charities working in health and social care which is part of a campaign by CTRG. Kate is a visiting lecturer at Cass Business School for the Diploma in Charity Finance.
Catriona Scrimgeour Catriona has worked in the charity sector for nine years with short breaks to have her two children. She has been Director of Finance for Bethany Christian Trust since November 2005 and was previously Finance Manager for the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Catriona is on the SORP committee and has been convenor of the SCFDG for the last two years.
Jenny Simpson Jenny Simpson is an associate with Wylie & Bisset CA and specialises in providing business advice to charities. She has considerable experience of ensuring that charities comply with the charities SORP, as well as providing ad hoc advice on an ongoing basis to her charity clients. She is a member of the Scottish Charity Appeals Panel, an independent body which hears appeals concerning decisions taken by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator. She is also a member of the Charities Committee of the UK200 Group and regularly presents at local and national conferences on accounting issues faced by charities. Jenny recently became one of the first people to be awarded the Diploma in Charity Accounting by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales.
Alan Thomson Alan has over 20 years’ experience as a tax adviser. He specialises on advising charities including membership organisations on all matters both on compliance and advisory issues including tax efficient giving, capital gains, property transactions and tax exemptions. He also writes on the subject including the taxation chapters in ICAEW Charities Industry Accounting and Auditing Guide plus he provides regular charity taxation updates for the Tax Journal. Alan has also written the LexisNexis Charities Tax Digest. Alan also lectures internally and externally on tax issues affecting the voluntary sector. Alan is a member of both the Tax Faculty of the ICAEW and the Charities Tax Group. In addition to the above Alan is a trustee of two charities assisting marginalised and disadvantaged teenagers. He is also a Governor at one of the largest girls’ secondary schools in the UK, plus Chair of Governors at another school.
Anne Wilson  Anne is a director in HCW’s charities unit.  Before this she had several years’ experience as a charity tax specialist with KPMG.  She is a chartered accountant and chartered tax advisor, with a background in corporate tax. Anne advises charities on their trading activities, setting up and funding trading subsidiaries, gift aid, intellectual property and property transactions.  She has acted for a number of major charities as well as several universities and further education colleges. Anne is a member of the Charities Tax Reform Group and the Charities Property Association, and regularly writes and lectures on charity tax issues.

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