Sarah Hughes

Sarah is a senior member of KPMG’s Accounting Advisory Services team where she provides transaction specific and ad hoc accounting advice to KPMG’s audit and non-audit clients. This includes advice on the application of new and existing accounting requirements to a range of business activities including acquisitions and mergers, financing transactions, group reorganisations, distributable reserves planning and GAAP conversions. Sarah also provides extensive accounting advice to KPMG’s tax practice, leading the accounting input on the design of tax-related products and supporting KPMG tax teams with the detailed implementation of such arrangements at multi-national clients. Sarah is KPMG’s expert on new UK GAAP providing accounting support to KPMG’s clients as they consider the impact of conversion to the new standards. Whilst on secondment to KPMG Sydney between 2004 and 2006, Sarah provided extensive support to a number of Australian companies when IFRS was first adopted in Australia in 2005. Sarah has recently completed a company-by-company impact assessment for a large utilities company, providing guidance on the accounting under both FRS 101 and FRS 102 and outlining the options available to minimise the impact of conversion on earnings and distributable reserves. Sarah has in-depth knowledge across a broad range of technical areas, including business combinations, financial instruments, leasing and foreign currency. Sarah is also a highly experienced presenter and designs and delivers UK GAAP and IFRS training to a number of finance teams, as well as being a regular speaker at KPMG’s Client Financial Reporting Seminars. Prior to the above roles, Sarah spent seven years in audit (in the UK and Australia) working with businesses of varying sizes within the Travel, Leisure and Tourism sector ranging from small owner-managed businesses to large listed groups. In total, she has over 15 years of experience gained through her work in Audit, Accounting Advisory Services and her work within KPMG’s internal technical accounting department, where she did an 18-month secondment in 2007/2008.