AAB has acquired Veritas Advisory, a London capital allowances consultancy with 100 employees, in a deal that follows the Goldman Sachs Alternatives investment, a move that matters broadly because it shows an investor-backed group buying specialists to broaden its tax offering, and matters specifically to accountancy professionals because Veritas advises accountants themselves, a sign that capital allowances is a niche practices often refer out rather than handle in-house.

AAB is an Aberdeen-founded professional services group backed by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, which now employs more than 1,900 people across 25 locations in the UK, Ireland and internationally.

Veritas Advisory is a London-based consultancy founded in 2013 by Clive Curd, combining property and tax expertise to advise accountants, investors, occupiers, agents and lawyers on property spend from 50,000 pounds (about 58,000 euros) up to portfolios of 500 million pounds (about 580 million euros), and it has developed an AI expert system for calculating claims with Brunel University.

Mark Lappin, head of tax at AAB, said the group is building scale and deep specialist expertise, calling Veritas one of the leading capital allowances specialists. Clive Curd, founder and director of Veritas, said joining AAB provides the platform and investment to accelerate growth while keeping the specialist focus, and to develop its AI technology further.

The niche is technical for a structural reason. Since April 2014, a buyer can claim allowances on fixtures in a commercial property only if the seller has pooled the expenditure, which turns a sale into a point where relief can be secured or lost.

That rule is why specialists sit between accountants and property deals. Accountants claim capital allowances for clients, but the rules on embedded fixtures need capital allowances and surveying skills, so the relief is often overlooked, according to one specialist firm.

AAB’s own pattern fits. After Ormsby & Rhodes in Ireland and Kreston Reeves in London and the South East, this adds a surveying-led tax team, and the source says further acquisitions are under discussion.

For the sector, the deal shows consolidators adding niche technical teams that accountants already call on, which can bring that referral work inside a single group.

Source: Consultancy.uk / Croner-i / Zeal Tax