PROMINENT corporate tax accountant Ian Crisp has left Ernst & Young and plans to open a boutique tax consultancy.
Mr Crisp finished at Ernst & Young at the end of March and, following a break at Rottnest, will open his new business next week.
Mr Crisp said his new firm, to be known as Crisp & Company, would specialise in corporate tax advice.
“I saw an opportunity in the market to service larger corporate groups looking for specialist tax advice,” he said.
The firm will target both private companies and ‘mid-cap’ publicly listed companies, but will not have individual clients.
“The independence issue has helped to create the opportunity,” Mr Crisp said.
He said that, until a few years ago, most clients wanted their tax and audit work to be done by the same person, for streamlining and efficiency.
Now the focus is on governance issues and there is a push to separate the two roles.
“The scales have tipped the other way,” Mr Crisp said.
Mr Crisp’s new business has close parallels with the specialist tax consultancy set up last June by former Andersen tax partner Keith Johns.
His firm, K D Johns & Co, has carved out a successful niche servicing private companies, high net worth individuals and mid-cap public companies.
Staffing at K D Johns & Co has grown from four to 12 over the past nine months, illustrating the firm’s rapid growth.
Mr Crisp has 18 years of corporate tax experience, with the past six years as a partner at Ernst & Young, where his main focus was oil and gas, mining, intellectual property and technology.
The new firm adds to Mr Crisp’s well-travelled resume.
He joined Andersen as a graduate recruit, had stints at KMG Hungerford (which merged with Andersen) and Deloitte, before joining Ernst & Young in 1996.
Mr Crisp has already secured premises in West Perth and plans to recruit three to four staff for his new firm.
