A day in the life of Angela Banerjee, Senior Tax Manager in Glasgow

ForrestBrown’s people are what sets us apart. We pride ourselves on the quality of our team and how they come together to deliver market-leading tax advice on innovation incentives.

We are passionate about how innovation incentives help businesses of all sizes grow. Our clients have access to a multi-disciplinary team that is best-in-class.

Our Day in the Life series shines a light on the people and skillsets that make ForrestBrown the best.

Meet Angela Banerjee

In this latest edition of A Day in the Life, we meet Angela Banerjee, a senior tax manager based in ForrestBrown’s Glasgow office.

Angela provides dedicated support to Scottish businesses seeking to benefit from innovation incentives. While she works with clients across a wide range of R&D intensive sectors, she has a particular focus on engineering and energy businesses seeking innovative solutions to sustainability challenges.

As well as working directly with clients, Angela provides input to ForrestBrown’s tax policy work, including contributing to consultation responses on R&D tax relief and capital allowances. She also offers a Scottish perspective on trends and statistics such as the annual publication of Patent Box data by HMRC.

Angela also works closely with colleagues in ForrestBrown’s offices in Bristol and London, including other tax experts and sector specialists. She liaises with the business development team based in Glasgow to share the latest developments in tax policy and innovation funding and to better understand the concerns of Scottish companies.

My day:

Pre-work

05:30 AM: Every day at ForrestBrown is different, but the one constant in my routine is an early morning walk with Archibald my American Bulldog. A blast of fresh air helps me to wake up and ensure I am ready for the day ahead.

08:30 AM: I commute by train into Glasgow and grab a coffee en route to the ForrestBrown office in the city centre. I kick off the workday by catching up on the contents of my inbox. This usually contains a mix of client correspondence, but today there are also queries to respond to following a recent webinar we hosted in partnership with a technology trade association. Events like this are a great way to share updates on the latest developments and hear from innovative businesses in different sectors.

09:30AM: Time to check in with colleagues in our tax practice in Bristol and London. This is a great chance to pick the brains of our talented team, so I take the opportunity to chat with a colleague specialising in software about a project one of my clients has been working on. It’s a sector where things move fast, so being able to check the baseline for technological advances with an expert is invaluable.  

10:30AM: Regular contact with clients is important in order to be able to offer timely and targeted advice. This morning I chat with an engineering firm who have worked with ForrestBrown for several years. We talk about how they are faring in the face of the current economic headwinds before getting into the details of projects that they are undertaking and the timelines for their next R&D tax relief claim. It’s also an opportunity to talk about the potential to claim relief under the Patent Box regime as the business has several patents, profits from which could be eligible for a Corporation Tax reduction.

12:30PM: Staying with the Patent Box theme, I’m teaming up with David Byrne and James Dudbridge to deliver a ‘lunch and learn’ session on how we can help companies protect, commercialise and fully realise the benefits of their innovation. We take colleagues through the synergies with R&D tax relief, explaining how the two reliefs can work together to support the full innovation life cycle. It’s exciting to share how we can continue to help clients benefit from their investment in R&D once it’s out in the market.

2:00PM: After a quick check of my Furbo cam, which enables me to keep an eye on Archibald and reward him with a treat if he’s behaving, it’s off to meet with a client in the oil and gas industry. I enjoy getting out and about to visit clients on their own turf. It makes it easier to catch up with more members of their team, including those who will be directly involved in R&D. This helps bring their projects to life – rather than being numbers in a spreadsheet, we can feel the excitement of the challenge and uncertainty they are seeking to solve.

4:30PM: Back to the office for a quick catch up with our growing business development team – at ForrestBrown, the business development and delivery team work closely together. I give an update on upcoming changes to R&D tax relief (with new rates coming into force from 1 April), and the team share feedback from multinational companies who are grappling with the implications of changes to the treatment of R&D activities carried out overseas. It’s clear there is a lot happening in R&D tax relief and we need to help our clients navigate this period of change and uncertainty.

5:30PM: My day concludes with a social event hosted by one of our partner accountancy firms. It’s a whisky tasting featuring six single malts to sample from a Speyside distillery. I’m no connoisseur but I don’t mind a wee whisky, so it’s an enjoyable way to network with partners from the firm. ForrestBrown builds long-term relationships with accountants and events like this are a great way to stay in touch.