Who We Are
Deb Healy FMAAT ATII
What was your first-ever job?
I grew up in a hard-working family where my parents owned a newsagent, so I started working as a shop assistant at about the age of 8 serving penny sweets to children.
My first grown up job was as a summer temp in a secretarial pool at a medical insurance company.
If you weren’t a tax adviser, what would you have been?
A Personal Assistant I think. I wasn’t very successful with exams at school so wasn’t a candidate for A levels or University. I instead did a BTEC Diploma in Business Studies thinking that having a good understanding of various business issues and opting for the secretarial modules would make me a great PA. It wasn’t to be though as one of the modules was Accounting and the lecturer persuaded me that was the route to follow.
If we’re talking dream jobs, I think perhaps a travel writer. I have been lucky enough to visit some amazing places so to have been paid to go on holiday would have been perfect!
Who got you interested in tax and how?
I would have to say Richard Mannion, a past president of the Chartered Institute of Taxation.
I originally did 6 years of accounting and audit work, but finding myself in a small firm with little chance of progression I took a chance on joining Solomon Hare as a tax assistant in 1994.
By a stroke of luck as a newbie my desk was outside Richard’s office, and when he heard me typing at speed he decided that he was going to pass me any spreadsheet or typing work that he had. That exposed me to a wide variety of tax work that I perhaps would not otherwise have gained experience in and gave me a real taste for the subject. Richard was and still is a great friend and mentor to me.
So it was definitely a case of right place, right time. And thank goodness for my CSE in Typing!
What do you think have been your biggest personal achievements?
As a child I think it would be competing in a team dance at the Irish Dancing World Championships winning a bronze medal. I tend to keep that fairly quiet otherwise I’m asked to get up at parties and do a jig!
More recently in 2006 I did a trek to Annapurna base camp in the Himalayas, in what I quickly discovered were pretty tough conditions and a bit of a shock having never been camping before. The group was raising funds for a fantastic charity called Cantreat. It was a very tiring, emotional yet amazing journey for all of us. It was a trip that I will never forget, perhaps one of the best, yet somehow worst, ‘holidays’ I have had.
Career History
- 2012 – present Healys, the tax advisers
- 2010 – 2012 Burnside
- 1994 – 2010 Solomon Hare (became Smith & Williamson following a merger in 2005)
- 1988 – 1994 Trenfield Williams Chartered Accountants
Deb Healy is a member of the Chartered Institute of Taxation and a fellow member of the Association of Accounting Technicians. Deb has also qualified with the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, and completed the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners technician certificate.
You can contact Deb directly at deb@healystax.co.uk or on 07951 760155