Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers: Is giving on the cards?

Guilds and Livery Companies have a long, long history of supporting charitable causes. As many readers may know, the tax profession has its own Livery Company, the Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers (WCoTA). If you look closely at our coat of arms, which was granted to us in 1999, the cross represents the Roman X (the number ten), indicating the tithe or tenth of annual produce or earnings paid as a tax in ancient times.

One of the Company’s primary aims is to support and fund charitable and benevolent causes. To achieve this, the Company’s Freemen and Liverymen support two related charities: The Tax Advisers’ Charitable Trust (TACT); and the Tax Advisers’ Benevolent Fund (TABF).

TACT is a general charitable fund that supports a number of causes in both the City of London and Greater London. This includes giving funds to The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, St John Ambulance, Magical Taxi Tours, certain London Boroughs for the provision of reconditioned laptops to school children, and Bridge The Gap.

TABF, in turn, supports the education of tax professionals and aspiring tax professionals if they have the misfortune to find themselves in straitened circumstances. Importantly, it also supports members of the tax profession, both personally and professionally, if they find themselves in times of hardship.

As you might imagine, 2020 and 2021 saw a dramatically increased need for our charities to be able to make grants and donations to a variety of applicants and deserving causes. Coincidentally, 2020/2021 also saw the WCoTA and its charities celebrate their 25th anniversary and we set out to raise an additional £25,000 to increase the amount of grants and donations we were able to make.

We have written previously highlighting our sponsored walk. One other fund raising project was to commission a bespoke twinset of playing cards. All the court cards reflect a variety of quirky taxes through the ages and the ace of spades naturally reflects the duty paid that used to be stamped on the ace of spades. If you would like to support our charities and the causes they support, and would like one or more of these packs of cards at £20.00+pp, please email [email protected] or go to our website at www.taxadvisers.org.uk where you can locate an order form.

In April we will be writing again about the WCoTA and inviting you to consider applying for membership. If you would like to be involved with the Company and its charities why wait until April? I would encourage you to go to our website: and apply to be part of our community today!

Lorraine Parkin is Treasurer of the Tax Advisers’ Charitable Trust and Tax Advisers’ Benevolent Fund