Dean Wootten FCA CTA – Principal
Dean Wootten has been involved in tax training for many years and lectures on a wide variety of tax matters. Dean started his career as a Chartered Accountant, qualifying with Grant Thornton in 1988. Dean then spent two years overseas with KPMG before returning to a medium sized provincial firm in Sussex. Shortly after returning to the UK Dean qualified as an Associate of the Institute of Taxation in 1991.
Whilst in practice Dean gained valuable experience including five years at partner level. The experience gained enables Dean to focus his lecturing on the practical aspects of the issues presented.
Together with Chris Jones, Dean was a founder director of Online Tutors Limited, a company specialising in providing online CPD training. The company is responsible for the tax and accounting CPD update service at TolleyCPD, the tax learning product Tolley Tax Tutor and the quarterly Tolley VAT Update.
Dean is also the senior lecturer on the CTA VAT route at Tolley’s and the EU VAT paper on the ADIT international tax exams..
Dean is a regular contributor to Taxation magazine where his articles have got a reputation for providing clear practical advice.
In 2014 Dean worked with the Bahamian Government in preparation for the introduction of VAT in the Bahamas from 1 January 2015
For a number of years Dean has provided VAT consultancy advice to practitioners throughout the UK. Dean is uniquely placed to provide practical advice in such a specialist area – he has unrivalled VAT technical knowledge but is able to get this across to practitioners and clients in a very clear manner.
Mike Thexton MA FCA CTA – Consultant
Mike Thexton took first place in the ICAEW final exams in 1983 and the John Wood medal for the Corporation Tax paper in the Institute of Taxation exams in 1984. He has been involved in training accountants and tax advisers for over 30 years, and has been in practice advising small businesses and individual clients since 2003.
Mike divides his time between client work, lecturing and writing, as well as sitting on the Examinations Committee of CIOT. He presents regular VAT updates for the specialist staff of several medium and large accountancy firms, as well as writing the quarterly VAT update for Tolley VAT Update service. He is a regular contributor to Taxation magazine, in particular answering Readers’ Queries. He won the Taxation Tax Writer of the Year award 2010 for articles, technical material and client newsletters.
In 2010 Mike represented his own company, Thexton Training Ltd, in a VAT appeal in the First-tier Tax Tribunal, winning the case on a point of principle. HMRC changed their policy in relation to the VAT Flat Rate Scheme for small businesses as a result.
Mike’s involvement in technical VAT training for over 20 years has given him an encyclopaedic knowledge of VAT law and practice, and his client work keeps him grounded in what is practical.
David Stokes FCCA – Consultant
David has been involved in providing international (cross border) VAT advice for many years. David started his career as a Chartered Certified Accountant and has specialised in VAT since 2001.
In 2006 David co-founded Accordance, an international VAT Consulting and Compliance firm based in Brighton. During this time David combined his accounting and VAT expertise to provide advice to clients with cross border transactions. Accordance was sold to a US Tax Tech company in 2020 and after leaving this company David now provides cross border VAT advice for the clients of Wootten Consultants.