Careers at
Barnes & Scott

The go-to accountant for tech start-ups

Join our dynamic team of professionals working with London’s most innovative tech start-ups!

We are a small but fast-growing accountancy and tax firm, with a diverse and exciting client base. Our employees work remotely, which means that you can work from anywhere in the world as long as you have a reliable internet connection.

At our firm, we value work-life balance, which is why we offer flexible working arrangements that enable our employees to work in a way that suits their personal needs. We understand that everyone has different commitments outside of work, and we strive to create an inclusive workplace that supports our employees’ well-being.

We offer opportunities for professional development, and a supportive work culture that encourages creativity and innovation. Whether you’re an experienced accountant or a recent graduate, we welcome talented individuals who are passionate about working with start-ups and helping them grow.If you’re looking for a challenging and rewarding career in accountancy and tax, and want to be part of a team that’s making a difference in the world of tech, we want to hear from you!

Current positions:

Tax Manager

About Barnes & Scott:

We are an innovative Chartered Accountancy firm based in London, focused on providing high-quality accounting and tax services to clients in the technology sector. Our aim is to develop London’s digital economy by providing a full stack accounting, tax and business advisory service to the best companies in the sector in order to help them attract investment, scale and grow successfully.

We are seeking a Tax Manager to join our remote team on a full-time basis. As a remote team with employees in the UK and abroad, we offer full flexibility and the opportunity to work with a diverse group of professionals.

You will report directly to the head of the company and will join a tax team that consists of a senior tax partner, a VAT consultant and an R&D tax consultant.

Our team is dynamic, professional, and easy to work with. We have an interesting portfolio of innovative and high-growth clients in the technology sector, and occasional travel to London may be required for team and client meetings.

 

Function of the role:

The primary focus of the role is to help grow and develop the tax department for Barnes & Scott. This includes helping grow the fee income from tax work, developing the range and quality of our services and developing internal systems to help the company increase its operations.

You will be providing tax advice to technology companies that invest heavily in innovation and are undergoing rounds of investment. Therefore an understanding of a company’s lifecycle, from start-up to exit, is important.

The keys areas of tax that you will need experience are: EIS/SEIS, employee share option schemes and R&D tax credits. You do not need to have a full working knowledge of other areas of tax, but a willingness to learn and grow is important.

 

Responsibilities & Requirements:

  • You must have at least three years previous experience working in a similar role.
  • You must be fully qualified ACA or ACCA, and/or have a tax qualification such as CTA.
  • It would be advantageous to have a technical understanding software development and/or a scientific background as most of our clients operate in this sector.
  • You must have an understanding the requirements for R&D tax relief and be up to date with the latest legislation;
  • You must be comfortable liaising with clients and interviewing in-house technical staff to gain an understanding of their R&D activities and you should be able to write and submit R&D technical reports (with assistance from the R&D consultant)
  • You will be responsible for guiding clients through the SEIS or EIS process, from start to finish, including preparing advance assurance applications, issuing shares etc.
  • You will be advising clients on implementing share option schemes (usually EMI schemes) and handling the ongoing filings.
  • You will be responsible for reviewing tax returns (both corporate and personal) and assisting with the preparation of the more complicated returns handled by the practice.
  • You should be proactive in researching areas of tax that you do not know about and show a willingness to learn new skills.
  • You will be responsible for helping the team deal with general tax queries from clients.

 

Benefits:

  • Fully remote role
  • Flexible working hours (within company’s operating framework)
  • Competitive and negotiable salary.
  • 25 days holiday + bank holidays.
  • CPD courses provided and professional fees covered.
  • Varied and interesting client portfolio.
  • Annual Staff bonus scheme (once in post for more than one year)
  • Friendly and inclusive working environment, with regular online team meetings and daily contact with line manager and team members.
  • Company pension scheme.

If you are passionate about technology and startups, have excellent communication and organisational skills, and enjoy working in a remote team environment, we encourage you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

 

To apply for this job please apply through Linkedin.

Hear what the team have to say

"This job has given me an opportunity to feed my tech craze with all the softwares and apps we use, plus the ability to trial new ones!"
Khagesh Ragoo
Assistant Accountant
"The way we interact with our clients, making maximum use of tech and cloud apps, is way more different as compared to my previous job. This has had a great difference on my skills and experience."
Smita Thuposy FCCA
Senior Accountant

Our culture:

Virtual working:
Being efficient and working virtually means we can serve our clients better.
Flexible working hours:
We accommodate everyone’s needs. Everyone has their own lifestyle and we appreciate and respect that.
Online calls:
Forget about travelling to the office, or to clients. We default to online calls to reduce travel time.
Focus on success, not time:
We often have appraisals on the work we deliver, not the hours you log.

Happy clients we work with

"Hands down the best accounting firm that I have every worked with in London. My company would not exist today without them. These guys really go above and beyond and they keep getting better over time. Smart, Efficient and Reliable."
Thierry Sequeira, director of Massive Rocket
"We have been conducting business in 3 different countries and have experience with many different accountants. Working with Barnes & Scott was a dream come true! In addition to a really zen accounting experience they were actually proactively helping us generate additional funding for our business."
Zuzanna Kosowska-Stamirowska, Director
"I have been with Barnes & Scott since the beginning of becoming limited. They are a great team; who make the time to talk through the process of taxation and how I can grow and maintain my business. A very personal team of prompt, professional advisers for every facet of my business, with a wide range of knowledge. A very safe pair of hands for tax and business growth."
Sam Hofman
"I call Tas the CFO in my pocket. Barnes Scott has been super-helpful, and I have a lot of trust in his team. I love how the firm is very tech literate and automates as many finance tasks as possible."
Tara Louise Reddy
"Perhaps the most useful specialist support Barnes & Scott has given us is in managing a claim for R&D tax credits. Our company spends a lot of time and money on innovative research. The amount that can be claimed back is significant but claiming the credits can be time consuming and complicated. Barnes & Scott made it easy. They have also helped us with EMI share options, project managing the process from start to finish."
Adam Rainsford, Financial Director
"Barnes & Scott took all the stress and aggravation away when they set up our accounting systems. Their service is thorough and very reassuring. I would highly recommend their services."
Sarah Rowley, COO, VOTAL
"Tas and his team have helped us navigate setting up a new business and taken the fear that we would somehow get everything wrong out of it! We have been able to focus on the things we are expert in, knowing our finances and accounts are in safe hands. Highly recommended."
Ruth Barnes, Director
"I’m a paperworkaphobe. Trying to run a business obviously means there’s ton, especially when it comes to taxes. Tasnim and his team helped us set up on HMRC, Xero, and Receipt Bank, making everything from submitting our daily receipts to end of year taxes insanely easy. Oh, and they even helped us get £40,000 back from the government in “R&D” rebate, something I didn’t even know existed. We’ve now saved time and earned more than we spent on accounting. I call that worth it."
Nick Broad, Director
"We used to handle our book-keeping in-house and it became unmanageable. A friend recommended Barnes & Scott and we engaged with them to take over our accounts and book-keeping. The transition was completely seamless. Tas took the time to understand what we were doing and how they could take over with minimal disruption and finding optimisations along the way. We now save a couple of days of work each month and have complete peace of mind knowing that our accounts are all filed correctly. Whenever we need some specialist advice it’s easy to pick up the phone. I would thoroughly recommend Barnes & Scott as a great value, reliable and efficient solution to your accounting needs."
Jonny White, Director
"Barnes & Scott have helped Vivacity grow from a company of 5 people to 50 during their involvement over the past five years. By professionally handling our annual return, VAT returns and R&D tax credit reclaims, it has freed up valuable management time in the company to allow us to focus on the core business."
Peter Mildon, CEO
Tasnim Mustafa FCA
Founder and Director

Meet Tasnim

As the founder and director of Barnes and Scott, Tasnim is the person who gives strategic advice to clients. He uses his experience to guide them through the more complicated areas of tax and finance, such as R&D tax credits, the mechanics of raising investment or implementing employee share option schemes. 

A wise business head on fairly young shoulders, Tasnim has 10 years’ experience in advising start-ups of all shapes and sizes, ranging from app development, digital media and cyber-security through to ad-tech, health-tech, smart city and gaming businesses. 

What’s the secret to an efficient and scalable finance system? According to Tasnim, it pays to keep things simple. “Plan ahead, start early and map out your regular tasks that need to be done at set times each month. Tax deadlines are predictable, nothing should come as a surprise” he says. “Once you have mastered that you can spend time on the more valuable stuff like strategic tax planning, expanding into new regions and hiring new staff.”

Clients often comment on how he doesn’t “look, sound, or speak like an accountant”; something we take pride in.

Throughout his career Tasnim has personally advised more than one hundred start-ups. Statistically speaking, most startups fail in their first year. However, the vast majority (over 90%) of businesses Tasnim has advised are still operating today, which is testament to the quality of startups that Barnes & Scott work with, as well as our advice and support. 

Tasnim started his career in finance in the City before training as a chartered accountant at the UK’s National Audit Office, where he was responsible for auditing central Government departments such as HM Treasury, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Bank of England. He was even entrusted with auditing the gold bars in the Bank of England’s vaults and the paintings at the National Portrait Gallery ‒ a safe pair of hands indeed.

Book a call with Tasnim

This site uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. By visiting barnesandscott.com, you accept our use of cookies.