Fri, 1 Apr 2011

Lack of tax experts at HMRC, industry figures claim

HM Revenue & Customs is suffering from a lack of tax experts at its senior level, according to comments made at the launch of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Taxation’s report: ‘PAYE Review and Recommendations’ last month.

During the meeting at the Houses of Parliament, one attendee claimed that currently only three members of the board of HMRC were trained tax inspectors. ‘The three of them are facing retirement,’ he said. ‘Who will succeed them?’

The report’s author, Adam Marks, affirmed this claim with his recent research. He told Payroll World: ‘There is Dave Hartnett [permanent secretary for tax] who is a tax expert. But the next level down of senior management has a lack of experts because many have left for the private sector already. So there is a big succession issue.’

A spokesperson for HMRC told Payroll World: ‘No single expert is likely to have all the knowledge or skills needed to tackle the most complex of tax cases. It’s the responsibility of our senior managers to make sure the department has access to the right skills required to tackle any given case. This approach works well.’