One of the first challenges Scott Mason (44) had to deal with in his new role as WHK New Zealand managing principal of tax consulting was the prospect of travelling to Auckland more regularly.
But he and his family decided they could deal with his travel as long as it meant they could stay in Dunedin.
Mr Mason has been appointed to a new role of managing principal of taxation consulting for WHK and he will run a 40-person team spread throughout five WHK offices in New Zealand.
"Our business preference would be for me to live in Auckland, our largest market.
"But my personal choice is to live in Dunedin. That provides its own challenges. Travel from Dunedin is hard work."
However, the use of smart technology made it more practical to work from and live in the city, he said in an interview.
WHK, in Dunedin, provided tax advice to firms around the country through technology and a separate company provided training from Dunedin.
"We chose to take on the world from Dunedin."
The reason for the new role was to consolidate WHK's position as the fifth largest firm in Australasia, Mr Mason said.
The market was dominated by the big four - PwC, KPMG, Ernst and Young, and Deloitte - but WHK dominated the small and medium-sized enterprises market, a sector which drove the domestic economy because of how many people were employed by those business owners.
WHK's target market was the "closely-held" sector, meaning business owners working in their own enterprises.
WHK provided much broader advice across several industry sectors, which itself had its own challenges, he said.
The "whole raft" of tax rules for the "closely-held" sector had its own set of challenges.
"We are dealing with [clients'] money as opposed to dealing with a large corporate or government entities. Our clients are business people rather than tax managers."
The job of the 40-strong tax team was to provide peace-of-mind certainty for business people on their tax obligations and for them to pay no more than they should, Mr Mason said.
Part of his new role is to expand the business and he aimed to add another 20 tax specialists to the team by 2015.
With size came leverage, and it was also his job to work out how best to use the size of the tax team to WHK's business advantage.
Size also gave team members a chance to specialise in their own area of interest. Tony Marshall, in the Dunedin office, was keen to expand into agribusiness tax issues. Being part of a larger team gave him the chance to use his expertise around the country, Mr Mason said.
Mr Mason had also made it clear to Mr Marshall and tax principal Jarod Chisholm that once they were ready for more responsibility, he would move aside. The new role allowed Messrs Marshall and Chisholm to assume more responsibility in the Dunedin office.
"My biggest challenge is to make sure we are the tax team of choice. The tax market is so small and we have to be an option. We want to interact with our clients in a more direct way. Tax is the first part of any conversation about business but we can be involved in ... business structure and negotiations. That differentiates us in the market."
Mr Mason was born in Southland and graduated from the University of Otago. He started specialising in tax in 1990, after his graduation. He is now on his fourth Income Tax Act.
"Tax is always changing. It is the nature of a tax specialist to enjoy the challenge and continue their training. It doesn't stop."
