HMRC announced new board appointments yesterday.
I have no doubt the new people all have merits: nothing I say suggests otherwise. But we now have a group of HMRC non-execs who inlcude:
- one ex KPMG trax partner
- one ex PWC tax partner
- one person ex Tesco
- one person ex Morrisons
- one ex NPower
and (the only woman):
- one ex ITV.
Amongst the three new advisers to the Board appointed (oddly, mainly women) we have:
- one ex KPMG partner
- one who was a key adviser to Tesco
- one ex Ford
- one ex the Met Police
Now as I say, these may all be fine people, but that's not my point. It is ludicrous that no one has come up through HMRC of any other civil service strand to this position. No wonder morale in HMRC is so low.
And it is ludicrous that we have one third of the non-exec board ex big 4 firms with another third from big UK retailers with almost all the rest from big business.
If you want to know why HMRC has failed, as the Public Accounts Committee has said, to come to terms with the tax gap and taxing big corporates I think this is where you start to look for an explanation.
When our tax authority has a board representing those who think avoiding tax is a corporate responsibility we are in trouble, and that is the prevailing sentiment in big business.
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Diversity is very useful, and as you say this arguably isn’t very diverse, but where would you suggest that HMRC look for senior people with tax and accounting expertise and experience of running large organisations?
Other than from within HMRC/HMT, of course – but surely the point of non-execs is to get people from outside the organisation?
How about some civil servants
Or NGO people – which are very big organisations
And maybe a union?
And what about a staff rep?
I’d have thought HMRC already has a lot of input from civil servants 🙂 And although the staff rep is something I know a lot of people would like boards in general to have, it’s not common in the UK.
But the other suggestions might have merit. The trick is getting both tax/accounting expertise and large organisation experience together in the same person.
The other aspect of it is agendas to push. I think you’re assuming that people from the Big 4 or large businesses will have their own, though I’m sure they’d say they try to act disinterestedly, so unions might be a counter to that. I wonder about small business, and non-HNWI individuals. Does they need voices up there? Maybe the sort of person who gets involved in the LITRG, or someone from one of the smaller accoutancy firms or networks?
I would like to have seen one of the small firms of accountants represented. When did Big 4 partners ever call HMRC on an 0845 number or have to wait twelve weeks for a reply to a letter?
And, when will any of them ever agree that we have a two-tier tax system in the UK?
Stuart
I’d have supported your application!
Richard
And, if you really want to see how the big firms toe the line listen to Danielle Stewart of Baker Tilly singing HMRC’s praises on this
http://hmrcisshite.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/world-according-to-danielle-stewart.html
Are these posts ever advertised? If so, where and when? I’ve already sharpened my pencil!
P.S. Private Eye, in this week’s issue, are equally dismayed by the appointments.
At the distinct risk of sounding plebian, what about the workers?
Quite so
Can’t remember where the phrase came from – probably meant sarcastically – but you don’t hear it enough nowadays.
Their sympathies may not lie with the embattled tax avoider !
This government is doing all it can to remove employment protection/s, lower wages/salaries and end working benefits….and you think they’ll enlist HMRC workers to enjoin battle with tax avoiders/evaders……many of who will have keys to number 10/11 ?
This calls for an initiative!
spot the untainted appointee?
Nothing to do with tax, but yesterday I was listening to the Food Programme on R4 and they were saying how the former head of the Food Standards Agency Tim Smith previously worked for a global dairy company and is now a director of Tescos. It’s one thing a poacher becoming game-keeper, but the usual trend is poacher=>game-keeper=>poacher.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/23/dutch_parliament_tax_vote/
And you’re also getting our former Second Commissioner from the ATO (not on your board) – Jennie Granger.
At the risk of sounding naive, is it conceivable that these ex-Big 4 appointees could share their knowledge of tax avoidance (evasion) practices and schemes with the HMRC?
But I do agree that wider representation is needed – unions, NGOs, charities and even small businesses.
No risk if that. More a question of using expert knowledge to ensure that HMRC’s anti-avoidance tenancies are neutered while minsters “talk the talk”.
This just confirms that HMRC is in hock to large businesses. This is evidenced by the employment of “customer relationship managers” in HMRC. I heard of one case where one of those tried to dissuade a member of his team from issuing a VAT assessment to a business because “he did not want to upset the customer”. Yet no such qualms exist in dealings with SME businesses.
The lack of knowledge about how Tax Systems actually operate would appear to be behind the current problems which are being encountered by Employers in the Real Time Infomation for PAYE pilot.
The HMRC systems are equating a change in Payroll ID / Number with the start of a new contemporaneous employment – the data files containing PAYE & NIC paymentso not contain the paydate to which they refer – leading HMRC’s Debt Management staff to make assumptions of underpayment of PAYE tax & NICs.
This additionally adds to the workload of the Employer, defending their correct actions against a false picture caused by HMRC’s failure to know BPO’s or PAYE operation.