Your Tax Adviser magazine

Tax Adviser magazine, and our weekly technical news service emails (CIOT News Service for CTAs and News service for ATTs), are two of the key benefits of membership. As you will know, Tax Adviser is produced monthly, and sent to members as a physical magazine. Most of the magazine’s content is also reproduced on www.taxadvisermagazine.com, with content dating back over five years, along with job vacancies and ad-hoc online only content. The weekly technical news service is sent by email every Friday. It contains technical news from the CIOT and ATT, as well as feature articles and tax updates by specialism.

We are always keen to ensure that our provision of technical material remains relevant and continues to represent an important membership benefit.

Our survey

Many readers will recall that, between December 2020 and February 2021, we ran a survey to obtain members’ feedback on both Tax Adviser and our weekly technical news service. The survey sought feedback on the nature and quality of content of both products, as well as the medium and frequency of their delivery.

We recognise that this was a busy period for many of our members, but as I shall explain later, it was important to undertake the survey at that time to inform our subsequent actions. We are grateful to the 1,611 members who completed the survey.

We have published the survey results on our websites (see www.tax.org.uk/TAsurveyresults and www.att .org.uk/TAsurveyresults), but some of the key findings are:

• Around 50% of respondents read the hard copy magazine every month, with about 25% reading it most months. Just over 20% rarely read the hard copy.
• Less than 10% of respondents read the online magazine every month, with about 12% reading it most months. Nearly 25% have never read the online copy.
• Over 90% of respondents read the hard copy magazine, but nearly 10%dispose of it unread.
• The tax technical articles are the most important features, followed by technical newsdesk and professional standards information.
• The magazine compares well against other similar magazines read by respondents.
• Over 50% of respondents read the weekly email every week, though time pressures represent the single greatest reason for not reading it.
• Over 85% of respondents rated the weekly email good, very good or excellent, and over 90% found it helpful or very helpful in keeping up to date with current developments.
• Around 75% considered the length of the weekly email about right, with nearly 25% saying it’s too long.
• Over 50% of respondents wished to retain a monthly printed magazine, with other combinations being less favoured. Less than 20% would be happy not to receive a paper copy.
• Looking at the combination of magazine and email, nearly 40% of respondents wished to retain the status quo (i.e. weekly email and monthly hard copy magazine), with the next highest preference receiving just over 12% of support (weekly email but no hard copy magazine).
• Other feedback suggested changing the day of the weekly email.

The tender process

As we explained when we launched the survey, in early 2021 we planned to put out to tender the future provision of technical material for members. It was important, therefore, that we undertook the survey, and shared the results with potential bidders, as part of that tender process. To ensure an open and competitive process, we advertised the tender exercise on our respective websites, in Tax Adviser and on www.taxadvisermagazine.com, as well as approaching several potential providers, including the incumbents.

Three tenders were received and, after presentations from each, and due consideration internally (including approval by both Councils), LexisNexis were appointed for a three-year term. Obviously, we cannot publish information that might be considered commercially sensitive, but our decision was based on their tax technical prowess (particularly considering the importance of technical content to our members), the quality of their presentation, and the expectation that we can build on our relationship with them to provide further value for members.

The same, but different

What was reassuring from the survey results was a general sense that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. So, the medium of our technical provision will stay broadly the same; i.e. a regular hard copy Tax Adviser magazine, with online content, and a weekly technical newsletter.

However, reflecting the feedback from the survey, we have decided to make the following changes:

• We will produce ten hard copies of Tax Adviser magazine each year, rather than twelve. There will be no January (SA peak) or August (holiday period) editions. Rather, the December and July versions will be slightly larger than normal. This will produce cost savings (as a significant proportion of the overall cost represents printing, packaging and post), as well as helping to reduce our carbon footprint.
• We will seek to increase traffic to www.taxadvisermagazine.com, and articles will be published online before appearing in the hard copy magazine, thus increasing the prominence of our online material.
• We are doing away with the existing plastic wrapper to be more environmentally friendly and will keep this under review.
• The weekly email will be circulated each Tuesday, rather than Friday afternoons, responding to the specific feedback in the survey on this point.

These changes will come into effect from December this year.

Looking further ahead, we are seeking to improve the ‘look and feel’ of Tax Adviser, and some sections of the magazine will be redesigned in early 2022. 

We will also look to have a more seamless joining up of the technical material on the CIOT and ATT websites with www.taxadvisermagazine.com.

Have your say – again

The survey really helped us to understand the extent of any structural changes we needed to make to the provision of technical material, and we will continue to undertake these surveys on a periodic basis. But can you input on a more regular basis?

Yes, you can – through joining our Tax Adviser committee.

The committee is currently chaired by former ATT President Yvette Nunn and is a joint CIOT and ATT committee. Its remit covers all aspects of the technical content of Tax Adviser magazine and the online www.taxadvisermagazine.com. In particular, the committee focuses on ensuring that the magazine and website meet the needs of today’s tax adviser by:

• reflecting the broad interests of CIOT and ATT members;
• providing a variety of content across the different tax regimes;
• containing an appropriate level of non-tax technical content (e.g. professional skills type articles);
• addressing topical issues; and
• providing valuable CPD.

It does this by supporting the Editor (Angela Partington) and Editor-in-chief (Bill Dodwell) in relation to the magazine’s content, providing and facilitating and reviewing feedback on previous content, and acting on the feedback received. The committee also looks ahead to future content, seeking to ensure that it will adequately cover upcoming developments and fiscal events. The committee meets three or four times a year, mainly virtually.

Awarding the new contract to LexisNexis, and the desire to better integrate our technical content, gives us an opportunity to reinvigorate the committee’s activities, to further improve this element of our membership benefits. We are keen to recruit new volunteers onto the committee, so if you have an interest in our technical publications, and would like to help us ensure they meet members’ needs, we would love to hear from you. We welcome members from all backgrounds – indeed the greater the diversity of thought and experience, the more likely the committee will fulfil its remit.

If you want to find out more, get in touch with us at technical@ciot.org.uk or jashton@att.org.uk.

Finally, I would like to say thank you to the staff and volunteers who worked on the survey and the tender exercise. We will do our best to build on this valuable work.