About the firm
Nearly 40 years rooted in
Hampshire's rural community
Founded in 1986 from a family farmhouse in Bramdean, Butler & Co has grown into one of England's most specialist agricultural and equine tax practices — ICAEW-regulated, probate-licensed, and still based on a working farm.
Our story
Founded in 1986 — Hampshire's rural tax specialists
Julie Butler FCA qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1980 and founded the practice six years later from the family farmhouse in Bramdean. The Alresford office opened in 1992, and the firm has operated continuously from Hampshire ever since — nearly four decades of unbroken practice.
Today the firm trades as Butler & Co Alresford Limited (Company No. 10726923) and is based at The Old Stables, Sutton Manor Farm, Bishop's Sutton — a setting that reflects, rather than merely claims, the firm's rural identity.
Butler & Co is regulated by the ICAEW, holds an ICAEW licence to carry out non-contentious probate in England and Wales, and is an ICAEW registered training firm. The firm's founding vision — combining proactive accounts, tax planning, and Probate, Trusts & Estates advice under one roof — remains its operating model today.
The directors
Meet the people behind the practice
Julie Butler FCA
Founding Director
Julie Butler is one of the UK's leading authorities on agricultural and equine tax. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1980 and founded Butler & Co in 1986. She is the author of Tax Planning for Farm and Land Diversification (10th edition, 2025), Butler's Equine Tax Planning (3rd edition), and co-author of Stanley: Taxation of Farmers and Landowners. Since 2017 she has edited Farm Tax Brief, published ten times a year, and her work has been quoted in Farmers Weekly and the national broadsheets. She lectures to accountants, solicitors and the rural community on agriculture, probate and equine tax, and appeared on BBC Radio 4 Farming Today in May 2021.
Lucy Butler FCA MAAT
Managing Director
Lucy joined Butler & Co in 2007 and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants and a Member of the Association of Accounting Technicians. She brings extensive experience across all aspects of rural businesses, with a particular focus on the Farming & Equine Department. She assists rural entities and individuals with day-to-day accountancy and taxation, HMRC enquiries, and complex farm tax enquiries referred by other accountants and solicitors. She grew up on the family farm in Bramdean with a passion for horses.
Fred Butler MSc ATT
Tax Director — Farm & Equine
Fred joined the Butler & Co tax team in 2012. He holds a Master's degree from the University of Bristol, is a Member of the Association of Taxation Technicians, and has achieved a Certificate in Probate and Estate Administration. He specialises in Inheritance Tax and Capital Gains Tax, probate matters and deceased estates, and structuring equine businesses for maximum tax efficiency. He grew up surrounded by horses on the family farm and continues to ride.
Andy Case FCCA
Director
Andy has over 20 years in practice and is named by clients as their personal contact for accountancy and tax matters. Stephen Glaister of The Alresford Linen Company credits Andy and the team with 20 years of accurate, timely accounts and professional advice. He is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
The wider team
A practice built on specialist depth
The directors are supported by a team of qualified and part-qualified professionals, including specialists in probate and estate administration and published contributors to the national tax press.
Libby James ACA CTA is a tax and accounts associate and co-author of several farming tax articles published in Taxation, Tax Adviser and STEP Journal. Angela Evans handles probate and estate administration matters, including complex estate accounts involving IHT, CGT and income tax — and is named by clients as a trusted, long-standing point of contact through some of the most difficult family circumstances.
As an ICAEW registered training firm, Butler & Co is committed to developing the next generation of rural tax specialists from within.
Client voices
"Angela was totally trustworthy and had our best interests at heart."
"The complexities of the accounts relating to the sale of my parents' estate and the subsequent division and distribution of the related inheritance to myself and my three siblings, plus the relevant calculations and explanations of all IHT, CGT, income tax and other more general issues, was done so professionally, diligently and sympathetically by Angela and the team at Butler & Co that I cannot recommend them highly enough."
A Laird — estate accounts client
"We need our accounts to be accurate and on time, along with professional and caring advice. Andy at Butler & Co always delivers and we congratulate him and his colleagues for being at the forefront of business life in Alresford for the last 20 years. Long may it continue."
Stephen Glaister — The Alresford Linen Company Ltd
Why it matters
Why choose a Chartered Accountant?
The ACA and FCA designatory letters are not honorary — they represent a minimum three-year training contract, rigorous examinations, and ongoing CPD obligations that unqualified practitioners are not required to meet.
ICAEW members in practice are subject to the ICAEW Practice Assurance Scheme and are required to hold professional indemnity insurance. Complaints are handled through a regulated procedure. Butler & Co's directors hold FCA, FCCA and ATT qualifications — and as an ICAEW registered training firm, the practice trains the next generation to the same standard.
When you instruct Butler & Co, you are engaging a regulated firm whose principals are individually accountable to their professional bodies — not simply a business that describes itself as an accountancy practice.
Ready to work with
Hampshire's rural specialists?
Call us on 01962 735544 or send a message — we're at The Old Stables, Sutton Manor Farm, Monday to Friday, 8.30am to 5.30pm.