TaxAssist Accountants (formerly TaxAssist Direct) was founded in 1995. The company has been set up to provide a national network of trained, experienced personnel, offering a professional and personal service in accountancy, taxation and business services to small businesses.

The company's founder, John Westgarth, is an experienced and innovative Chartered Accountant. It was whilst working in practice in 1995 that he saw an opening in the market place.  He realised that small businesses would need help with their accounts in the wake of self-assessment, and he anticipated that the demand for such a service would be ideal for a franchise network.  TaxAssist Accountants was formed on the back of this realisation.

Self Assessment has revolutionised the way in which small businesses and the self-employed are required to report results and calculate tax liability. To meet this demand, there is an ever-increasing need for a good, local, personal service. Many small businesses find they don't get the service they deserve from their present accountant and resent the large fees they have to pay. Therefore they are often willing to change to an accountant that specialises in offering a complete range of services specifically for small businesses.

Our target market is the sole trader, partnership or small limited company.

Clients range from pubs, garages, hairdressers etc. through to pilots and professional musicians. "Generally, clients' businesses have grown because they are good at what they do, not because they enjoy the inevitable paperwork. Taking away that burden leaves them free to concentrate on their skill area to everyone’s mutual benefit" says Chief Executive Karl Sandall.

John has made use of his experience and knowledge of how to build up a successful accountancy practice specialising in looking after small businesses, having himself built up a client base of 500 with a turnover of £300k, to develop the TaxAssist Accountants business model and support infrastructure. In the early days the franchise was developed alongside John's accountancy practice, but as the franchise expanded John sold his practice in order to dedicate his full time to TaxAssist Accountants.

Today John's role is as a Non Executive Chairman, but he is still heavily involved in board level decisions and supporting the other Directors of the Company.

Now, the Support Centre offers a complete range of professional, experienced and qualified personnel to fully support your business endeavours. The team is headed by three executive directors.

TaxAssist Accountants Training

BPP Professional Education, the UK's leading providers of accountancy and taxation tuition, provide our accountancy and taxation training. Training is carried out at our Support Centre in Norwich by qualified personnel in an informal atmosphere. The courses are residential and TaxAssist Accountants pays for all meals, accommodation etc.

The 5 week Training Programme consists of:
• The first and second weeks cover all aspects of accounts production and taxation for sole traders and partnerships.
• The third week covers software training on Taxation and Practice Management.
• For the fourth week you will be working from home. You will be given relevant case studies to work through which will need to be sent to BPP and business plans also need to be submitted to TaxAssist Accountants during this period.
• In the last week you will receive sales, marketing and recruitment training.

TaxAssist Accountants Support

Full training, support and guidance are given to operate your business under the TaxAssist Accountants brand name.

You will receive:

• an exclusive marketing territory
• Accountancy and Tax training by the UK’s leading provider – BPP Professional Education
• Nurture programme which lasts for 6 months after the initial course focusing on business development, HR, staff recruitment and client acquisition
• Fully integrated software suite from CCH
• Complete ongoing training programme (technical, marketing, software, administration)
• Comprehensive operations manuals
• Continuous guidance and support
• Technical advice helplines including access to our technical support website, support material and visits from our technical experts
• Access to specialist advice/in-field back-up
• Regular contact with our Franchisee Liaison Manager to monitor and discuss progress
• Technical updates
• Inbound and outbound lead generation service including 25 free leads
We work closely with you, particularly in the early period of your operation, to ensure everything is going well and clients are being obtained.
• National Yellow Pages advertising and internet optimisation creating inbound leads
• Initial stationery and marketing materials including your own personalised website
• Marketing, publicity and brand building
• Regular regional training and development for franchisees and their staff
• A support site with adverts, guidance, stationery etc
• First year’s membership of a networking group such as BNI or BRE
• Telephone answering service for first year
• Plus much more with our full ongoing support programme
• A lifestyle package (a smaller territory) is also available in selected rural areas. Please enquire to the support centre for specific details of this package
 

We offer two entry levels to the franchise. The first entry package costs £29,450 + VAT and allows you to work from a commercial office and then move to a shop front by the end of your third year. Alternatively you can also open up a shop front from day one. The franchise fee includes an exclusive territory, licence fee, a fully configured laptop and IT software, training fees, our Nurture Programme that helps you to maximise your activities and kick-start your business, operations manuals, promotional material and stationery, an accountancy and tax helpline and national marketing amongst many other things. We also provide 25 free client leads from our lead generation providers and look to arrange membership of a networking organisation wherever possible, simply to help you raise awareness of your business in the area.
 
The second package is called the ‘Lifestyle Package’ and costs £19,950 + VAT.  We are offering this package in limited rural areas.  This package has been created on the back of the increasing desire among many to escape the confines of city practices and the costs of city living through the purchase of a practice in a new location such as smaller market towns or rural areas.  We have selected various locations around the country where we wish to offer this package, and it would also be relevant if a reduced size territory is all that is available in a certain area.  Please speak to the recruitment department to see what areas are included.

The main differences between this package and the one listed above, are that you would be paying a reduced franchise fee, and your ongoing costs would also be lower. This is because you only have a territory half the size of a standard size territory.

This package requires the franchisee to work from a commercial office and then move to a shop front by the end of their 3rd year. It also allows franchisees to open a shop front from day one if they wish.