Our people

Paul Taylor – Director

Paul started his tax career in the mid 1980’s and qualified as a chartered accountant and a chartered tax advisor, gaining experience with two large international practices.  In 1996, he co-founded his own practice together with two partners and built the firm from the ground up to become a Top 100 practice with over 100 employees by 2010.

Following a management buy out of the company in early 2017, Paul founded Freestone Jacobs to create a new firm to specialise entirely in tax advisory services and enable him to dedicate his time to performing the type of work that fully utilises the skills and knowledge he has built up over more than thirty five years in practice.

Throughout his career, Paul has worked with a huge variety of clients and has developed an extensive knowledge of all tax issues affecting owner managed businesses including complex company restructures,  share options schemes, cross border and other international tax issues and general lifetime tax planning.  He works with the business owners/managers to offer bespoke solutions to their particular tax requirements.

When he is not busy reading his tax legislation, Paul enjoys walking his dog, time with his family at their local pub and dealing with the ups and downs of watching Portsmouth FC.

Allison Walker – Director

Allison started her career in the early 1990’s working for a large local firm of solicitors in the area of Trust administration.  Seven years later she decided upon a slight change in career when she joined Paul as a specialist tax trainee, qualifying as a Chartered Tax Advisor shortly after. Over the course of more than twenty years, Allison has developed extensive experience in all areas of tax involving owner managed businesses.  She became a tax partner in a local accountancy practice in 2007 and was a key contributor to building this firm into a Top 100 practice.

Allison joined Paul at Freestone Jacobs to continue their longstanding working partnership and to form a fresh and innovative environment to make use of the knowledge and experience she has gained during her career.  She aspires to combine bespoke solutions to meet client’s technical tax needs with the provision of the highest standards of customer service.  Allison advises on all areas of taxation including inheritance tax, trust planning, corporate taxes and reliefs.

In her spare time, Allison is a sports and fitness fanatic and can regularly be seen running long distance races, playing netball and boxing.  She has also taken on the role of personal trainer for some of her ‘lucky’ friends.

Sarah Dodd – Office Manager

Sarah has provided administration services within the field of tax for over twenty years and has worked closely with both Paul and Allison for the vast majority of these.  As such she has a wealth of experience not only in the administrative issues commonly encountered within Tax but, more importantly, in how to keep Paul and Allison under control.

Sarah joined Freestone Jacobs shortly after its creation as office manager dealing with all aspects of running the office and managing Paul and Allison’s diaries and the practice’s workflows.

Sarah has two daughters whose dance classes and social calendars keep her busy outside working hours.  However, in her limited spare time Sarah enjoys socialising with friends and can also often be seen running or at the gym.