Our Directors
Our General Practice
Our directors provide a full range of Audit, Accountancy and Business Support services.
Stephen Seifert BA Econ (Hons) FCA
Stephen started work in the Audit Department at Price Waterhouse in 1988, progressing to Audit Manager. During this time, his Audit Clients included Selfridges, the Shell Pension Fund, Shell Trading Subsidiaries, Britannia Airways, DHL and Chase Manhattan Bank.
A Change in the approach to Auditing was then introduced, spearheaded by the Large Firms of Accountants and he decided it would an opportune time to move to a smaller, more local Firm, which coincided when his wife was expecting their first child.
Stephen was introduced to the Partners at Elliot, Woolfe and Rose and joined this Firm in 1992, to oversee its Audit Department and take responsibility for technical compliance. He was admitted as a Partner in the Firm in 1996, since which time Stephen has developed a significant portfolio of small to medium size businesses, providing a wide range of accounting, audit and taxation services. He also advises his Clients on computerised accounting systems and management reporting. Via links with various Solicitors, Stephen has prepared many forensic accounting reports.
Stephen also acts for a number of Charities, which stems from his dedication to volunteer work, having been a Foundation Governor at a local primary school for over 20 years, where he was Chair of the Finance Committee for many of those years.
Stephen takes pride in his work and would like to think that as the greater majority of his portfolio has been developed via recommendations and referrals over the years from existing clients, this is a good reflection on the services which he has been providing in the accountancy profession for over 35 years.
Outside of work, Stephen is married with 3 grown-up children and his interests include holding a Season Ticket at his beloved Arsenal Football Club (his 2 daughters being 4th generation Arsenal supporters in his family), playing 5 a side football twice a week and if time allows, playing his piano and clarinet for relaxation at home.
Rikesh Patel
Rikesh is a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and has worked in the profession for nearly 15 years in and around North West London. He has all round knowledge in accounts, audit, taxation and corporate finance. Over the last few years he has accelerated his passion for business advisory and corporate finance.
Over the years he has worked for small one man bands to UK subsidiaries for global listed companies including hotel groups.
Rikesh has spent many years in international tax and travelled all over world, presenting in Europe as well as publishing tax articles globally. He has built up a global network on lawyers, accountants and tax advisors worldwide.
He specialises in supporting start up businesses offering advice on the most suitable business structure and evaluating business ideas. His client portfolio operates in a large range of sectors including investment property, construction, hospitality and the healthcare sector.
Other specialisms:
- Tax advisory for owner managed businesses.
- Advising clients on business growth.
- International tax planning
- Audit and assurance services
- Corporate finance services including valuations, buying and selling businesses.
- Tax structuring for corporate reorganisations, acquisitions, disposals and group planning.
Martin Briggs FCA
Having trained with Levy Gee in Chalk Farm, Martin qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1990 and started full time in his own Practice in March 2000. He merged this into Elliot, Woolfe and Rose in June 2023.
He has a wide range of individual clients and businesses, with a niche for community pharmacies and is also a Certified Trainer for ClearBooks accounting software.
Graham Busch, B. Com, FCA, CA(SA)
Graham Busch was born in Cape Town, South Africa. He studied at the University of Cape Town and completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree there in 1975. He went on to do his accountancy articles with a medium sized Cape Town Chartered Accountancy firm and qualified as a South African Chartered Accountant in 1977. He then joined a smaller Cape Town Accountancy practice as an accounts and tax manager where he became a partner in 1982, specializing in family-owned businesses.
In 1986, Graham and his family moved to London, where he joined a medium-sized City of London firm as a manager. There he specialized in tax structuring in the field of “International Operations”. He described this as tax aspects of any situation where goods, monies, services, or people straddled international borders.
In 1994, Graham was coaxed into joining a smaller suburban London Chartered Accountancy practice. He brought and introduced his international experience to the firm and soon built up a sizeable portfolio of clients. Some of these were domestic UK businesses and individuals but most were either multinational groups or high net wealth individuals who had an international element to their affairs. On the corporate side, Graham specialized in cross-border tax structuring and advising on matters such as corporate residence and taxes on cross-border transactions and investments. On the personal tax side, Graham advised many individuals planning to come to the UK (usually non-resident non-domiciled), ex-pats already in the UK (mostly resident and non-domiciled), or UK residents leaving the UK. Typically, Graham’s advice covered all aspects of residence and domicile, including remittances, mixed funds, the statutory residence test, split year treatment, income tax and capital gains tax mitigation, as well as all aspects of inheritance tax planning. The tax effects of investing both in and beyond the UK also occupied much of Graham’s time and advice.
As an important part of Graham’s “internationalization” of the firm, he initiated the firm’s entry into GGI Global Alliance in 1996. In those days, GGI was a fledgling network which had been in existence for barely a year. He then became an integral part of the network’s expansion into one of the world’s leading global multi-disciplinary alliances of independent firms. Graham fulfilled the role of an active member of the alliance’s policy committee, which inter alia was responsible for vetting prospective member firms around the world. He also became the global vice-chair of GGI’s Tax Practice Group, the alliance’s largest and most active practice group comprising international tax consultants from around the world. Graham chaired many seminars and workshops and was a regular presenter both at GGI numerous conferences and at external tax events globally. Graham also presented on several occasions to GGI’s young professionals and at regular webinars.
In 2017, Graham was approached to join a medium sized City of London firm with the mandate to both establish an international tax department and to expand the firm’s international reach. Within a few years, Graham had become instrumental in growing the international tax department’s business exponentially. He was also at the forefront of the establishment of a new international alliance, known as XLNC, at which he also took the position as global co-chair of the new alliance’s Tax Focus Group. He duly continued his role in chairing regular tax webinars and also organizing and presenting at focus group meetings at the new alliance’s regular conferences.
Graham retired as a partner from the firm in 2022 as part of a process to wind down towards retirement. At the time, he described his new status as mostly retired. As it happened, having intended to continue consulting in a relatively low-key fashion, his client portfolio has grown rapidly almost by accident. As a result, on 1st April 2024, Graham has moved from a sole practitioner to a consultancy role at the suburban London firm of Elliot, Woolfe & Rose. Here he will continue to offer his consultancy services in the field of cross-border taxes. He can now also offer his clients the back-up and resources of the Elliot, Woolfe & Rose team to be able to offer a full spectrum of audit and accountancy services, as well as payroll, VAT, tax compliance and statutory assistance to his clients.
Latterly, Graham has become well versed in the terms of the extensive government rewrite of the tax laws concerning UK ex-pats and foreign persons coming to the UK and also concerning UK residents leaving the UK. He has provided tax advice to numerous clients since the laws changed in October 2024, on the complexities of the abolition of domicile and the remittance basis of tax and the related replacement legislation.
Graham’s hobbies are grandchild-minding with his wife Sue, following most sports, especially football (Graham and his son are for their sins Tottenham Hotspurs season ticket holders), and travelling extensively with Sue. He recently counted up some 70-odd countries that they have visited over the years.
Graham is also active in his local community and recently organized a group to visit Lords Cricket Ground. He is also involved with befriending and transporting several elderly people in his community.