My family, MHA and my career

Meet Victoria Dadswell

Victoria Dadswell is a tax advisory director, who has benefitted from the firm’s agile working policy to help her juggle life as a parent with work life. She begins by telling us her journey so far.

“I re-joined the firm in 2013 having previously worked for Lonsdale and Partners who merged into MHA in 2008. I have worked with Rachel Marsdin (one of the firm’s tax advisory partners) since 2003 when I was training and have always enjoyed working alongside her.

“I initially joined as a senior manager progressing to director in 2018. During my 10 years the team has grown substantially affording fantastic opportunities to grow my role and specialisms. We now have a significant tax advisory team working on a wide range of tax planning projects including inheritance tax planning, corporate restructuring, succession planning, business sales and employee share schemes. Every day is different."

“I love the work life balance working in this part of the country gives you. It’s a rural area with wonderful scenery and is fantastic for walkers, cyclists, trekkers and runners. Commuting to work through the Lake District is a real privilege."

“I try to stay active outside of work and enjoy running and going for walks with my family, so I love the way of life here. Having the Lake District on your door step is fantastic and I can often be found paddleboarding on Coniston or walking a Wainright”

Victoria continues talking about her journey and how the team has grown:

“When I first joined the firm there were perhaps 20 people in the tax team in the North West, and today we have almost 60 and as we’ve grown nationally, we now have even bigger teams across the country and tax specialists in areas such as share schemes, transfer pricing, international tax, UK expat and customs and excise."

“It’s been fantastic to be part of and contribute to this development, and we will continue to grow this year, along with the increasing intake of trainees joining us across the country, which rises year on year.”

The conversation then moves onto the firm’s flexible and agile working policy and how it has benefited her:

“When I joined the firm, I had one child, but knew that I would want a second in the not-too-distant future, and I was upfront with Rachel about this."

“I felt it important to be honest and transparent before joining a new firm. This was never an issue and as a parent of two pre-school aged children I worked a three-day week, which was fantastic especially being able to do so at the level I am and provided real peace of mind."

“When my children were small it was key to me to get the right balance between work and family commitments. For me I was able to get involved in their activities such as play groups, whilst also being able to continue focusing on my career."

“Now that my children are in school and a little older, I work four days a week. I do still have the pleasure of doing the school runs three days a week as this falls outside of my usual core hours. This has never been an issue and the culture really embraces that, so as long as my work commitments and the business needs are met, then my family commitments are not an issue.”

“This level of mutual respect does mean that when there may also be occasions when I may need to work a little over my usual working week this is not an issue, and as I benefit from the ability to balance my family commitments, it does not pose an issue when on occasion I may need to work a little over and beyond. Everything is planned and communicated and I am therefore easily able to do this.”

“The level of respect that the firm shows me, and fellow colleagues, breeds a great culture of mutual respect. This stage of life can be quite challenging with multiple commitments from a professional and personal perspective, so I can’t recommend the firm enough for this progressive approach to looking after their people.”

And outside of agile working, what do you feel some of the other benefits that our people enjoy, within your tax team but also wider across the firm?

“We offer a high level of service to our clients and are able to offer this because of the large network and support of the vastly experienced team that we have working here.

“There is a really positive supportive culture at the firm, everyone is really warm and open to questions and there’s always going to be someone who is able to help and advise.

“There are also plenty of opportunities for personal and career development that you might not see everywhere. Career paths for those already in the team are a really big part of our ethos and as well as attracting the best people to the firm. I particularly enjoy working with our students and seeing them progress.”

We ask Victoria whether there are any common misconceptions that people may have about working in tax that she can dispel?

“The word ‘tax’ can sometimes be seen as a negative or a bad thing, be it that they want to take money from you, or help you play the system so you can avoid paying tax. Both of these couldn’t be further from the truth; what we do for our clients is to help plan their finances and affairs in the most tax efficient manner, we would never put our clients in a compromising position.

“We are honest and transparent with our clients, and as a result, feel assured that their affairs are in good hands.”

To conclude we ask Victoria what it is that makes our tax team so unique and special, she answers:

“We have such a diverse range of people within the tax team which affords us lots of opportunities as we can match up our people and clients perfectly. We work with a vast array of clients from individuals to CEOs of large international corporate groups. Every day and every client is varied.

“As I’ve also already touched on, I believe that the peer support for a firm of our size is unrivalled. For a mid-tier firm, we have a unique family atmosphere where everyone knows everyone and supports each other.”

Outside of work Victoria is a keen runner, regularly running with friends and taking on big challenges such as a recent St John’s Hospice 40-mile Keswick to Barrow Walk. She also loves going to the theatre to watch musicals.