After the scandals surrounding HMRC during the Hartnett era you'd think a new culture was needed in the organisation. One that was strongly pro-tax, against abuse and tax avoidance and that indicated a new, straight talking, down the line approach to big business with not a hint of cosiness or chumminess attached.
So who has just been appointed as the new chair of HMRC? Ian Barlow.
Who's he, I hear you say.
He's the former senior partner of KPMG, London.
Yes, that's the KPMG present in every major tax haven in the world.
The KPMG who signed off a bank's accounts astrue and fair in 2008 knowing it was bust, as they admitted to the House of Lords.
The KPMG who were fined $455 million in US a few years back for selling abusive tax schemes.
The KPMG who along with other such firms likes to sell "effective supply chain management services" - oherwise known as shifting profit into tax havens.
You couldn't make it up.
So much for a culture change. Under the Tories it's still jobs for the boys.
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What about Mike Rake being put in charge of reviewing and responding to the “external” audit of Barclays’ management practices?
I admiore your sense of humour!
The words Dracula and blood bank come to mind.
Margaret Hodge and the Public Accounts Committee have done a sterling job in trying to clean up HMRC (much more than the supine Andrew Tyrie and his Treasury Select Committee) but unfortunately the Labour Party did not get involved. We have all seen how Ed Milliband’s intervention in the LIBOR scandal shattered the cosy political consensus regarding the City and forced a seismic change. If the party had shown such an attention to HMRC then someone like Richard should be the Chairman of HMRC. Sadly, the senior staff union – ARC – of which Hartnett and co are active members – speak from both sides of their mouth and are unable to challenge a system that throws up such dodgy appointments. Very sad.
I believe the HMRC whistleblower remarked on the big business background of the entire non-executive board of HMRC. Is it any wonder it is one rule for them and another rule for the majority of (unrepresented) taxpayers?
You can’t expect people with little or no moral or ethical compass to understand why this kind of news is so repugnant (but unfortunately not surprising) to an increasing body of people, Richard. Nor, in a week when we are dealing with the latest banking scandals, it sends such obvious and glaringly contradictory messages when proposing to tackle the warped ‘culture’ of banking and finance.
…..and Edward Troup, ex Simmonds and Simmonds is to take over from Hartnett. With him and Barlow in charge surely we have the very definition of “regulatory capture”.
I see Barlow was head of tax at KPMG when this was taking place at one of their major global tax clients.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/4954212/Royal-Mail-bid-tax-scam.html
Allegedly this was the largest code 9 investigation of suspected serious tax fraud involving a plc in the noughties. Hartnett must have forgotten this when he suggested to the PAC that in his experience large corporates don’t evade tax. At least Barlow will not be able to make the same comment, oh sorry I forgot, being a good liar is compulsory for a leadership role in HMRC.
The oligopoly of the Big Four international accountants (ably supported by the ICAEW) which between them handle the vast majority of audits for plc and private companies are incorrigible liars.
Hopefully their nauseating trade will be severely burnt in the maelstrom of fire sweeping the financial services industries.
Can you guess who’s HMRC’s mail carrier of choice?
Maybe in an alternative universe HMRC will utilise their experience to tackle avoidance!
Phil, as a middle level employee of HMRC I’d love to disagree with you and back the comment made by our new Chief Exec on our intranet about these appointments; “Ian Barlow and Edward Troup bring a wealth of tax knowledge and experience of how HMRC works (!!!) to their new roles……” or some such similar tosh, but of course I can’t.
Regulatory capture? You said it. Still, nothing surprises me anymore as regards the moral bankruptcy of the financial elite, as the latest banking scandal shows.
I have to protest at all the recent baloney about so-called redundancies in HMRC. In response to a question around redundancy fears today, employees were cheerily told it was sometimes necessary to ‘support people to leave the department’. At least they won’t be made redundant, eh? It is also interesting to note that HMRC has for the last 2 years come bottom of the Civil Service employee satisfaction survey. Perhaps Mr Barlow has been brought in to solve that problem. I wonder if he’ll be salaried or paid via a Management Services company?
One revelation that did tickle me was that a group of HMRC staff had been awarded a £20 shopping voucher each as a thank you for services above and beyond….. etc. En masse they donated the vouchers to UK Uncut.
Either you are right and it is jobs for the boys, or these are great examples of converting poachers into gamekeepers. We will only be able to tell by the results achieved by John Griffith-Jones, Sir Mike Rake and Ian Barlow. Their reputations are now on the line.
OK, an ex Big 4 appointee is not good. But it would require someone with top tax expertise. HMRC already have enough amateurs, not their fault, they can only pay peanuts for talent.
So who are you going to suggest who is spotless? Not a “political” appointment please because a left wing advocate is going to put off the tax paying public just as much as a right wing one.
Stephen makes a fair point. You need someone who knows a great deal about tax. If it’s not someone from the Big 4 then it’s a career guy from HMRC. And the last career guy from HMRC wasn’t much good.
Then add a number of career HMRC people to the board