Ian Marrow

Although Ian was born and raised in Lancashire, he has spent all his professional life working in London and the home counties.

Ian spent 10 years working for HM Customs and Excise (as it was then). This involved being trained to work as a ’control officer’ at the City VAT office (City of London), visiting businesses of varying sizes and complexity and ensuring that the ’right tax was paid at the right time’.

He also worked in the City VAT office’s enquiries section and was also key in setting up an educational team to go out to explain the intricacies of the tax to the business community.

Since then Ian has worked within the private sector, from Big 4 to boutique VAT-only businesses. However, Ian’s objective throughout has been to assist clients in reaching their goals whilst helping them understand the VAT implications of doing so.

Since joining Rickard Luckin, Ian has risen from the sole VAT specialist to a Director leading a team dedicated to VAT issues. At the same time, owing to events such as Brexit, the scope of issues to advise on has grown, encompassing import and export procedures, incoterms, and what special procedures may apply.

As part of the MGI/CPAAI network, Ian also leads in international co-operation for clients in the UK operating abroad and also overseas businesses looking to trade in the UK.

Thanks to this, the VAT Team at Rickard Luckin has a high level of experience and knowledge in issues for businesses regarding international trade, especially in the post-Brexit landscape.

Ian is a founding member of the MGI/CPAAI EU VAT group and has a network of contacts throughout the EU and further afield to assist clients with understanding the issues they face when looking to do business elsewhere.

VAT can be complex and is often seen as illogical. However, thanks to Ian’s experience he always looks to explain the issues in ways that make sense and highlight the areas of risk and opportunity. This is the ethos of Rickard Luckin’s VAT Team: to enable clients to have confidence in their VAT treatments but also appreciate where a new opportunity or income stream could create issues for VAT.

The approach is always that ‘the only daft question in VAT is the one you didn’t ask’. This mantra shows Ian’s approach in encouraging colleagues and clients alike to get in touch to discuss matters - hopefully before agreements are closed.

Whatever the level of complexity, from scale charges for car use to business/non-business allocations for charities; international trade requirements or land and property transactions, Ian and the VAT Team can help