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.
Graham’s hobbies are grandchild-minding with his wife Sue, following most sports, especially football (Graham and his son are Tottenham Hotspurs season ticket holders), and travelling extensively with Sue. He recently counted up some 72 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.
Qualifications
B. Com, FCA, CA(SA)
