I guess at the age of 43  and after 20 years in tax practice in the UK and with a number of tax website projects ongoing or in development, as well as running a fulltime UK tax practice , a tax blog seemed a logical next step

Tax Blogs?

Blogs are about individuals  having their piece of the internet or their say and that is what this blog will be about. In addition to "having my say"  I will keep you up to date on some of the other tax web projects in the making or newly launched. 

About me?

In addition of having trained and now practicing as a UK Chartered Tax Adviser  I have spent the last four years or so teaching myself how to write and develop websites   it seems to me that a tax blog is something that I just can't avoid .  

On the web

www.taxdiary.co.uk

The first active tax website launched Tax Publications Limited of which I am a director and the founder is www.TaxDiary.co.uk which lists some of the CIOT branch meetings in the UK and a number of tax seminars and conferences from around the UK organised by other tax groups or tax training or seminar organisers. If you organise tax events such as tax seminars or tax conferences in the UK and want these listed on www.taxdiary.co.uk get in touch either via this site or via our www.taxpublications.co.uk site by registering there. Tax Seminars, conferences and events with a cost per attendee of less than £75 (net of VAT) are free to list. For events where the cost is over £75 per attendee the listing cost is 15% of a single attendees place on the seminar or event. This is extremely cost effective adverting as the diary is indexed by Google and other major search engines. For instance at the time of writing this blog entry try typing "tax seminars guildford" for example. The aim is that within a year or so any tax seminar you are looking for you will easily be able to find. Plus some very costs effective CPD points will be a matter of a click away (plus other great ways to expand your continuing your professional development ! - see below...)

www.tax-directory.co.uk  

To help promote UK Tax Professionals and Consultants we have also launched a cost effective directory of UK tax advisers which is on www.tax-directory.co.uk and can also be found under www.taxindex.co.uk. Some of the larger tax publishing companies are charging in excess of £300 for a listing in their drectories which it seems to us are simply promoting tax consultants to tax consultants? Our aim is to promote your tax practice for FREE . This is done via search engine indexed directory websites. Featured listings do involve a small annual fee which is around 10% of what the larger publishers are charging. Featured listings appear above free listings and can add more details about their practice or firm. Again if this is of interest to you or your tax firm please get in touch with me. 

www.taxationjournal.com

Other projects are planned or in development which include a www.TaxationJournal.com which is intended to be a tax journal written by tax professionals for other tax professionals and open to members of the public on the net. If you are interested in being a tax author on www.taxationjournal.com either on a regular basis or occasionally please get in touch with me. This is a great way of sharing your knowledge while at the same time promoting your firm or practice .

www.ukprofessionaljobs.com

With the cost of recruiting tax staff and other professional staff via traditional recruitment agencies being up to 15% to 20% of salary  the cost of recruiting experienced staff is extremely high. What if those recruits then leave within a year or two of joining?.. the cost of recruiting can effectively mean the whole exercise of recruitment, work done then recruiting again as a not very profitable exercise (except for the recruitment agency that is). We are intending to challeage this recruitment proceedure. With the age of the internet recruitment need not be this expensive. Our new website which we are currently developing for launch in 2008 (or late 2007) is our first stage of tackling this issue. Listing of tax jobs will range from Free job listings to featured listings with more prominence on the site.

If tax employers would like us to do the searching for them either though our own record of UK tax job seekers or by head hunting the tax professional requires then the range of service is totally flexible and at a fraction of the cost charged by the traditional tax recruitment agencies. View us as an alternative. We are not trying to put the tax agencies out of business that is for sure as they serve a useful purpose. What we are looking to supply tax professionals with is a viable alternative which is a fraction of the cost or even FREE in many cases .  Get is touch with us via the www.taxationjournal.com website or via this website if you would like more information.

Once www.ukprofessionaljobs.com is up and running and at the appropriate time we intend on launching a website totally dedicated to tax jobs on www.uktaxjobs.co.uk. The main uk professional jobs website will cover tax, accountancy, legal other related professional jobs. Both practice and professional jobs in commerce. Senior management jobs are also planned for this site as qualified accountants and lawyers are often recruited to senior management roles in business other than directly accounting or legal related. 

www.taxsupport.co.uk

When I started designing websites we found that other web designers and developers (both novice like me  and expert are willing to share there experiences and help eachother. Well it struck me at the time why not tax advisers and I launched www.taxsupport.co.uk. Why not register and get involved . The more users of www.taxsupport.co.uk there are the more useful it will be. It is a great way of sharing questions and answers as well as news, you opinion on tax issues or even just having a chat in the tax lounge. Simply go to the www.taxsupport.co.uk website register and get posting. It is totally free and easy to use. You can post anonymously or give your details if you want to use this web tool to also promote yourself as a tax adviser.   

Well that that is a taster of what we have on offer at the present time and planned for the near future relating to tax on the net. Happy reading and I sincerely hope that all the websites we launch will be of use to members of the tax profession and members of the public looking for members of the tax profession around the UK and who knows even globally.

With a bit of luck by the time I am 83   I will have achieved something more than just being in tax practice and looking after my private clients well during their business lives. My goal is to give tax professionals cost effective, simple solutions for their own practice or firm or just to make their lives in this profession a bit easier. 

Wish me luck in my ventures! There are some much bigger fish in this pond hopefully I won't get eaten along the way .

John Cotter - TaxBlogs.co.uk