Petr Karpeles shared with us his first impressions on this year’s award in the Daňař & Daňová firma roku (Tax Advisor & Tax Firm of the Year) competition.
The Tax Advisor & Tax Firm of the Year competition has been held since 2010 and is the only competition of this type in the Czech Republic. The aim of the competition is to select the best tax specialists, tax personalities and to choose the most client-friendly tax offices. This year, TPA took the prize in the Best Employer in Taxes, Top Tax Personality – Business Tax Sector and the Tax Star of the Year – Direct Taxes categories. The announcement of the competition was made online through the MS Teams platform in the context of the measures related to the covid-19 pandemic.
What do you say about the result?
I’m obviously very pleased about it, but first and foremost, I’d like to congratulate our colleagues, Ms Jana Skálová and Mr Jiří Hlaváček for the victories in their categories. These are well-deserved awards for their long work. We’re very proud and value the fact that they’ve connected their careers with our firm and help to build TPA’s good name.
What does the Best Employer in Taxes award mean to you?
I think people are the most valuable asset in every company. And in consultancies this applies twofold. This is why this award is very prestigious to us and we value it all the more that the broad public decides on it with its votes. It means that as an employer we have a good reputation not only with our current employees, but also with potential and former ones. All of us at TPA are genuinely delighted to win this category.
Last year and the year before, TPA was in 2nd place and now has won 1st place for the fifth time in total. How would you explain this success?
The Tax Advisor & Tax Firm of the Year is a competition for those who are and want to become tax professionals. We believe that in our more than 20 years as a tax firm, we have earned a reputation as a quality advisory firm and having TPA on your CV is definitely an advantage for everyone. At the same time, it’s always been important to us that our employees work in a pleasant atmosphere. So, to answer the question, we attribute the seventh award to our reputation as a stable firm with high expertise, but above all to the fact that our employees enjoy working at TPA and find it meaningful.
What makes working at TPA so different from other consultancies?
I wouldn’t like to go into comparisons with other consultancies, I can speak primarily for TPA. So, I’d mention our emphasis on the education of our employees. In this regard, I think we deserve the reputation of a company where professionals with a high level of expertise and a broad tax background grow.
What, do you think, makes a good employer?
We recognize that our employees have different expectations and requirements of us as their employer at different stages in their careers. Colleagues entering the job market primarily want to look around, get their first work experience and “a column for their CV”. If they’re still studying, they naturally appreciate flexible or part-time working arrangements. On the other hand, colleagues with longer work experience are more likely to prefer professional and career growth and the opportunity to influence the running of the company. Those who are starting families, on the other hand, emphasise individual settings that allow them to balance family needs with the demanding nature of the consulting profession. So, the motivations are very different, and as a modern employer we try to accommodate variably to the needs of our employees so that we can utilize potential of each of them.
What do you see as the biggest benefit of working for TPA, what do our people value most?
This would be a good question to ask our employees, and as I said one question above, something a little different may be important to everyone. But if I had to single something out for myself, for me it’s the atmosphere in the workplace where everyone works together, helps each other, shares know-how, respects each other and cooperates. I think we’ve had this company culture at TPA from the outset, and we’re trying to preserve it and develop it further.
And any wishes at the end?
First of all, I’d like to thank all my colleagues across our group of firms for their positive and constructive attitude in these difficult times. Thanks to the efforts of all of us, we’ve not only made it through the last two covid years, but have moved our company forward in many areas. Therefore, I’d like to wish for us all that all the seemingly ordinary and positive things that the last two years have taken away from us will come back to our lives and at the same time that we’ll be left with the new things we’ve been able to create.
