I was at the Public Accounts Committee tax conference yesterday and if I get time will note a number of reactions today.
What was immediately noticeable to me on the day was the absence of HM Revenue & Customs and HM Treasury from the event. I was assured that they had been invited but declined to turn up, at all.
The arrogance of that position is staggering and no excuses about election run ups and the like can be offered: other departments such as BIS attended the academic event I was at on Tuesday but neither HMRC or the Treasury turned up there either.
If HMRC management want to prove themselves unaccountable, contemptuous, aloof and out of touch then they are very clearly going the right way about doing so.
If they want to show contempt for parliament they are succeeding in doing that as well.
And if they want to pretend that the tax debate has nothing to do with them, even though it obviously has, then they're demonstrating real capacity at sticking their heads in the sand right now.
All of which supports my suggestion that HMRC needs reform from the top down, and soon.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Indeed, how much transparency will there be over who was invited to the event, and more to the point who attended? Will PAC be publishing a list?
It was published yesterday – so I am sure they will supply to anyone who asks
I actually tried to find out how to get an invite but couldn’t find any info anywhere. Could you direct me to the appropriate person for future events – this is I assume a taxpayer funded event? Thanks
pubaccom@parliament.uk