Franchise with benefits

‘I’m a firm believer in driving strategy and looking ahead at where the market’s going,’ he says. ‘We have to make sure that we are as good as we can be and stay ahead of the competition in terms of our ability to manage change.

‘We have had to respond to the same pressures as every other small practice, from the rapid development of cloud-based bookkeeping to AI,’ he adds. ‘Ten years ago, the digital-first solution didn’t exist; now it’s a core part of our business. We’ve had to change our model completely, in a way that works for us but, more importantly, for our franchisees as well.’

Profitable model

Change can be a huge challenge for small practices, but this is where the franchise model brings significant benefits, Moore argues. ‘We take on all of that pressure around brand development, lead generation, technology, regulatory change and compliance, and testing and selecting software. We can then help our franchisees to focus on building their practice, developing client relationships and supporting their teams.’

Franchising is essentially self-employment with a safety net; according to the British Franchise Association, around 89% of franchisees (across all sectors) are profitable. TaxAssist franchisees pay an initial investment and a percentage of their monthly turnover to the company. In return, as well as benefiting from the established brand, they can access a wide range of support services, including training courses and webinars, mentoring, and a recruitment and resourcing solution.

‘The franchisor-franchisee relationship is the best example of working in partnership that I know,’ says Moore. ‘We both have a vested interest in building the business. Our support drives our franchisees’ success, which in turn drives our growth.’

Data and diversification

Evolving technology has brought huge benefits to TaxAssist. ‘The era of cloud-based bookkeeping has been a huge boon for us; we’ve grown off the back of helping clients get to grips with using it to their best advantage,’ says Moore. Making Tax Digital is another bonus, creating new demands from clients.

‘We’re not a franchise business or an accountancy business these days; we’re a data business. We look after over 120,000 clients across the UK, most of whom are small businesses. That’s an opportunity – to use data differently, to use analytics to target services and to support clients in different ways.’

It also makes TaxAssist important as a lobbying group; Moore was invited to the Labour Party conference last year and was introduced to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. ‘We’re starting to push that representation agenda now,’ he says. ‘We can represent small business owners in a way that no one else can.’

Diversifying the group’s income has been another priority for Moore. The TaxAssist Group has three major income streams: its franchise networks, support services for franchisees and direct-to-client services through its own practices. The latter is expanding steadily under Moore’s tenure and generated fee income of around £3.5m in 2025, with plans to grow it to £10m in the next two years.

‘We’re now a practice in our own right,’ he says. ‘We are effectively joining the consolidation model but in a very different way. We look for practices that are familiar to us, which are easy to integrate.’ This generally means buying out TaxAssist franchises that come up for sale; four new firms were added to the stable in this way in 2025, but over time it will look to acquire external practices.

TaxAssist’s own practices work under the same territory rules as its franchise businesses (franchisees have exclusive rights in their given territory), which has helped to address worries around competition. ‘There were concerns expressed, as I would expect,’ says Moore. ‘But I have been very clear about why we are doing this, and we’re now at the stage where our franchisees understand and appreciate what we’re doing.’

Becoming a consolidator makes sense, he adds, because ‘we genuinely believe we are different. We understand small practices in a way that other consolidators don’t.’

The next stage of the plan is an IPO, in two to three years. ‘That will give us access to funding and liquidity for our shareholders,’ says Moore. (The group is relatively unique in the franchise sector in that more than half of its franchisees are also shareholders.)

‘We know we have to evolve, and that means investment in people, technology and acquisitions,’ Moore adds. ‘We want to acquire businesses that we can bolt on to provide more services and support for our franchisees and their clients, and we want to buy more practices.’

Heart and soul

Moore himself had a taste of a leap into the unknown when he joined TaxAssist in 2018, after a career spent exclusively in practice that had taken him to equity partner and board level. He is quick to note that TaxAssist had been a longstanding client when he took the decision but, even so, it was a risky move.

‘It’s just not something you do when you’re an equity partner, so it did cause some ripples,’ he says. ‘It was a big step, but I didn’t want to get to the stage in my career where I felt I was just seeing my time out.

‘Advising businesses was the heart and soul of practice, for me; I loved that feeling of connection, of making a difference. At TaxAssist, that emotional response you get from helping people in their business has been multiplied many times.’