WHEN Primrose McCabe left a large international firm of accountants eight years ago, she was barred from practising within 10 miles of Edinburgh.
The result was Primrose McCabe & Company being set up in the quiet dormitory town of Linlithgow.
This did not deter Ms McCabe and she became president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in 1994 while her firm expanded with two partners being appointed, Jeffrey Meek in 1989 and Barry Laurie in 1993.
The chartered accountants were involved in ground breaking work with Northern Venture Managers, helping them to set up Northern Venture Trust, the second in the country to provide investment capital for small businesses.
Tax partner Mr Laurie helped explain the tax advantages of venture trusts to potential investors and #14.5m was raised, #3m of it in Scotland.
Northern Venture Trust has already made its first two investments, including #400,000 in Safe Marine, an Aberdeen based company which makes radar equipment for oil rigs.
Meanwhile, the accountancy firm is developing its involvement in the hotel industry where it believes its expertise in tax law can reduce the liability of hotel groups or obtain refunds.
``We are not saying to the hotels that we should replace their existing accountants,'' said Ms McCabe, ``but we can go in and out and deal with a particular tax situation.''
Mr Laurie, who was an tax inspector before qualifying as a chartered accountant, said: ``Companies who have spent a lot of money on new developments such as leisure centres should not assume that they have claimed all their tax. We have recently been involved with an Edinburgh hotel where we will save them between #50,000 and #100,000, and we recently agreed an increased tax claim for 1979.''
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