Education push for new CIoT president Jones
Chris Jones plans to educate the three 'key pillars' of taxation: Taxpayers, tax advisers, and the tax authorities
EDUCATION is to be the central theme of new CIoT president Chris Jones’ tenure, he confirmed in a speech at the institute’s Parliamentary Reception yesterday.
In a speech which deliberately borrowed Tony Blair’s 1997 refrain ‘education, education, education’, Jones said he wants to focus on educting the public on how the tax system works and how they should engage with it.
“Much of this is done through the media, but we are exploring other routes too – such as getting more tax education into schools,” he said.
Jones also wants to focus on education of tax advisers as to the scale and nature of the changes they face, particularly given the pace of digital change.
He said: “If the new Digital Tax Account is delivered as promised it will have a substantial impact on our profession. Less processing of data, more provision of proactive ongoing advice. Practitioners will need to adapt. Professional bodies should be helping them.”
The third prong of his education campaign is that of education of HMRC and others who make tax policy.
“Driving the digital agenda forward needs the trust of taxpayers – that will only happen where service is put first in the list of priorities. As last week’s figures on call answering showed, some elements of that service are just not good enough at the moment,” he said.