John Cairns

A long-time member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, and a Chartered Tax Adviser, Mr Cairns has been a partner in both Scottish and international accounting firms, specialising through the greater part of his career in corporate and personal tax planning and strategy.

He said: “I am absolutely delighted to have joined Robb Ferguson as director of taxation and hope to build on the proactive advisory tax services provided to the firm’s ever-increasing client base of larger SMEs.

“Robb Ferguson’s ongoing growth plan, which aims to see the firm expand by up to 50 per cent in the next three to five years, takes account of the widespread ambitions of many of our existing clients to grow their businesses over the period, both organically and by acquisition, so I expect to be quite busy.

“At the same time, there are lots of business-owners in Scotland who will be seeking successful exits from their companies over the period and I expect to be assisting many of those individuals, whether or not they are already our clients, all of whom will need to have plans in place which optimise their tax positions.”

Robb Ferguson’s managing partner Andy Logan said: “We are very pleased to have been able to attract someone of John’s calibre to the firm.

“He is regarded by his fellow professionals as a leading expert in all tax matters, personal and corporate, and we believe that our clients will benefit significantly from the added dimension of professional expertise, insight and experience that John brings to our offering.”

Offering a comprehensive range of accounting, audit, tax and advisory services, Robb Ferguson was founded in the 1880s and currently has a headcount of over 50.