HMT's assurance services encompass statutory audit, tax compliance, personal and corporate tax planning, management accounting, company secretarial and general business advice.

The Assurance department is headed up by David Hurst, one of the founders of the firm, and he is assisted by a team of qualified accountants and tax specialists who work as one department to offer a complete and integrated service.

This integrated structure means that our audit, tax and ongoing general business advice is delivered by a single service team who work extremely closely together. This contrasts with other firms who typically provide these services from several different departments and fail to properly communicate with each other, let alone the client.

Our services include:

• Audit and general business advice - in addition to efficiently and accurately conducting the statutory audit, we believe that to properly advise clients we need to be in close and regular contact so that we can advise on the tax, accountancy and commercial consequences of decisions whilst they are being contemplated and not once they have been made. Accordingly, a partner keeps close to each client during the year, providing ongoing client support to include general business advice and liasing with HMT’s other specialist departments when required.
  
  
• Tax compliance and planning - in addition to assisting our clients in income tax, corporation tax, PAYE, VAT and other tax compliance, the tax specialists within Compliance are able to deal with personal and corporate tax affairs. This includes detailed tax planning and international tax matters as well as working closely with the Transactional Tax team as required.

• Management accounting - we have a dedicated team of management accountants who are able to provide accounting support either on a regular basis, supporting the client’s staff or as holiday or maternity cover. This service often includes the preparation and interpretation of monthly management accounts, a service which is invaluable to owner managers and overseas parent companies alike.

• Company secretarial - we are able to incorporate companies and maintain statutory books, including filing all forms and returns at Companies House.

As virtually all of our staff are qualified, our clients are able to benefit from their experience and expertise rather than being used as a training ground for unqualified staff. Indeed our cost and fee structure also provides for a large amount of hands-on involvement from the partners.

As a consequence, HMT's assurance service is seen as being totally client oriented. It is structured to provide a high quality and integrated service which results in the clients assurance needs being dealt with efficiently and effectively with no surprises.

Our clients are not just successful local businesses but also major companies with a national and international presence. We deal with companies who typically have a turnover of between £5 million and £100 million and are either owner managed, private equity backed, part of a large international group or listed. Many assurance clients have originated from our Corporate Finance department following an MBO or some other form of acquisition. Consequently we are well placed to assist them through a period of rapid growth or change.

Businesses appoint HMT as their auditors and advisers as they believe that they have either outgrown their existing accountancy firm or feel that the fee or service levels they are receiving from either the national or international practices are unacceptable.