A-customed to his face!

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), July 27, 2006

The tax department at Deloitte, in Newcastle, is further expanding with the recruitment of Chris Leslie from HM Revenue & Customs.

Chris brings a broad range of expertise in employment taxes and regulatory compliance, as well as in-depth knowledge of the HMRC North East Construction Industry Scheme (CIS).

His arrival opens up the market further for Deloitte, particularly in light of new CIS regulations due to come into force in April 2007.

Chris's responsibilities include the delivery of presentations to external accountancy practitioners involved in the Deloitte Professional Update Club in Durham, Leeds, Sheffield and Hull.

Chris is also preparing to deliver further presentations in the Newcastle area. He said: "While working with HMRC I resolved PAYE, National Insurance Contributions, tax and CIS issues with many leading accountancy firms.

"Once I'd decided on a change, I was only interested in furthering my career with Deloitte and was delighted when my application was successful.

"It's been ideal to actually put my knowledge and experience into practice within a new and challenging role.

"With various CIS developments ongoing, a great deal of work is likely to be generated within the region, particularly around the issue of employment status and as a team we are gearing up to deal with this."

Stuart Cottee, tax partner at Deloitte's Newcastle office, added: "Chris is a welcome addition to a team that has grown significantly in size and strength over the past couple of years.

"We now have a well deserved reputation for delivering a dynamic, tailored and locally-based response to client needs.

"We are committed to continually enhancing our client service and will continue to make strategic hires like Chris in order to enable us to do just that."

Chris is member of the Deloitte North Employer Solutions group led by Don Sutherland, in the North of England. The team offers advice on employment tax issues, share incentives, reward strategy and international assignment.