Tax strategy
Tax strategy statement
The company values represent a set of core values that we should demonstrate in our behaviour and interaction towards wider stakeholders. Our management of tax utilises our principal behaviours of being professional, caring and reliable, to support our overall strategy. The core values and behaviours have been embedded in our tax strategy below, and this all comes together to allow us to deliver service excellence and be a trusted advisor.
By investing in our people, we will operate effective tax governance to always deliver on our promises: As a people-focused organisation, we have the desire to provide a high quality, safe and accountable service across our client Trusts. Similarly, in the current tax environment, tax needs to be managed proactively and responsibly to ensure we are compliant in all aspects of our day-to-day operations. We achieve compliance by ensuring the implementation of appropriate policies and procedures to mitigate adverse risks and proactively ensure our key tax controls are designed and operate effectively. NHSP is committed to minimising tax risk for our wider stakeholders, in line with our risk appetite which is agreed by the Board of Directors. Our Directorates/Business Units identify and assess risk, with a defined process to ensure escalation as appropriate to the Audit & Risk Committee, and ultimately to the Board. Our risk registers are used as an agenda for our Board meetings, and any material tax risks are assessed as part of this process and added to the internal audit plan for further review, as required. Our finance team has the appropriate level of tax training which allows them to make an assessment for the engagement of external advisers when required, to supplement the tax position. In particular, we strive to ensure accurate and timely reporting and submissions of all our tax returns.
We will operate with honesty and integrity with all our stakeholders in tax: The company values, developed by the Senior Leadership team, represents a set of core values that employees of NHS Professionals should demonstrate in our behaviours and interactions with all stakeholders. In conjunction with this, we take full responsibility in embedding these behaviours such that we co-operate fully with tax authorities and governmental bodies. We work responsibly to protect not only patients and our workforce, but also our reputation with the NHS Trusts we work with. The way we do this in a tax context is by engaging with tax authorities in a cooperative, open and transparent manner.
Standards and Values – we will strive to be tax efficient but always in accordance with our standards and values: Having grown in profitability over the last few years, it is clearly a primary aim to deliver value to all our stakeholders, but ensuring that any tax efficiencies are commercially driven, rather than tax motivated. Given our priorities of providing a high quality service, sensitivity to stakeholder interests and focus on issues with an impact on our stakeholders are fundamental to NHSP. To this end, we strive to meet our obligation in paying the relevant taxes and governmental fees due, per the letter and the spirit of the law. This forms the necessary foundation of our sustainable business model which is fundamental to our people-centred operations.
We will work in partnership to provide real-time tax advice to the business: Our objectives of being professional, caring and reliable, ensure that not only are our external stakeholders able to rely on us, but also that NHSP works collaboratively internally and our finance team, for example, are able to support the wider business in making commercial decisions with the tax consequences in mind. We do this by building relationships between teams to ensure real-time tax advice is available where necessary to aid commercial decision making, prior to any significant decisions being undertaken.
Our published UK tax strategy, in respect of our financial year ended 31 March 2024, has been prepared to satisfy our commercial objectives but should also comply with UK legislation as set out in the UK Finance Act 2016.