TaxOne is a finalist for the 2026 Accounting Excellence Awards in the Tax Team of the Year category
I don't recall us ever working with the goal of winning an award.
When someone calls us after receiving a letter from HMRC, we don't think about whether their case will look good in an award application. We think about how to help them, how to explain the regulations in plain language, and how to ensure they can finally sleep soundly after weeks of stress.
That is why the news that TaxOne has reached the finals of the Accounting Excellence Awards 2026 in the Tax Team of the Year category means so much to me.
In this year's edition Accounting Excellence 176 finalist spots were awarded across 22 categories. In our category, Tax Team of the Year for small firms, only six tax teams from across the UK were selected. TaxOne is one of them.
Why were we selected as finalists for Tax Team of the Year?
We haven't received individual feedback from the judges yet, so I won't pretend to know exactly what tipped the scales. However, we do know the official criteria for this category. The judges were looking for teams performing exceptional tax work, delivering real value to clients, capable of documenting their results, and operating to the highest professional standards.
TaxOne was not created to be just another tax return factory. From the beginning, I wanted to build a boutique firm that doesn't view a client as a case number, another tax return, or an entry in a system.
Every client comes to us with their own story.
Sometimes it's an entrepreneur running a business between Poland and the UK. Sometimes it's someone who received a "nudge letter" from HMRC and learned they should carry out a Tax Disclosure. Sometimes a client owns property in Poland but has lived in the UK for many years and doesn't know where they should pay tax. Other times, it's an elderly person receiving a small foreign pension who was never previously explained how the double taxation agreement works.
Behind every one of these cases is a person who is very often afraid.
Our job is not just to find the right regulation. Our job is to understand the client's entire life, determine their tax residency, sources of income, and connections to both countries, and only then find a solution that is correct, secure, and understandable to someone who is not a tax advisor.
Taxes must not only be filed but also explained
One of the most important elements of our work is education.
We regularly publish videos, articles, ebooks, and social media content. I also wrote the book "Lower Taxes Legally" because I believe tax knowledge shouldn't be reserved only for those who can read legislation and HMRC Manuals.
Much of this content doesn't generate direct income for us. Preparing it requires time, research, filming, and editing. We do it anyway because we know thousands of people need reliable information explained in plain language.
Over the past year, we’ve expanded the team responsible for this part of our business. A journalism student has joined us to help us communicate complex topics even more effectively. We also work with a specialist dedicated to the quality of our video content, because even a subject as difficult as tax can be presented in an engaging and understandable way.
The best proof of the effectiveness of this education isn't just the messages we receive from clients. Our materials are also watched by other accountants who learn from our book and videos, and then refer cases requiring specialized knowledge to TaxOne.
Building a bridge between the UK and Poland
This year, we also took another important step and began developing our operations at TaxOne in Poland.
We made this decision because our clients' lives don't end at a national border. Many of them live, work, and pay taxes in the UK, but still have assets, family, property, pensions, or obligations in Poland.
We don't want to tell a client that we can handle the UK side of their affairs, but they have to manage the Polish side on their own.
That is why we have started working with Robert Brandt, a lawyer with 25 years of professional experience in Poland. We will also be hiring more experts so that our clients can receive consistent support on both sides, without having to search for several independent advisors who often don't even talk to each other.
This nomination is for the entire TaxOne team
I am incredibly proud of this recognition, but I am even prouder of the people who make TaxOne what it is every single day.
This nomination isn't an award for one good project. It is the result of hundreds of conversations with clients, hours of analyzing regulations, preparing consultation summaries, recording educational materials, and finding solutions for cases that were often previously considered too difficult.
It is also thanks to our clients, who have trusted us, shared their stories, and recommended us to their families, friends, and other entrepreneurs.
Being a finalist for Tax Team of the Year doesn't mean we have achieved everything. I see it more as confirmation that the path we have chosen is the right one.
We still want to remain a boutique firm. We still want to know our clients' stories. We still want to call back, explain, educate, and be there when taxes stop being just numbers and start affecting someone's life.
The full list of finalists for the Accounting Excellence Awards 2026 can be viewed here:
https://www.accountingexcellence.co.uk/finalists-2026/
The winners will be announced on September 29, 2026, during a gala at The Roundhouse in London. Regardless of the final outcome, being named one of the six finalists in our category is a tremendous honor for me and the entire TaxOne team.
Dawid Wojnowski
