What’s going on at HMRC?

What's going on at HMRC?

It’s been a while since the last post. I’ve been on holiday, and I’ve just taken on a new job at Accountancy Age, so it’s been a bit hectic. And besides, I thought, you’ll all be on holiday too, won’t you?

Whilst we’ve all been away, I gather there has been some busy goings-on at HM Revenue & Customs. A bundle of memos reached me detailing various job moves at the tax authority.

David Garlick at the Large Business Service is retiring, which may not be news to many, being replaced by Melanie Dawes from the Treasury. Some say she may be a soft touch on business, in the wake of some fears from higher up (Whitehall people say figures as exalted as the Prime Minister even have been spooked by business complaints about the taxman).

John Keelty is to lead a programme of work looking at joint working between HMRC and the DWP, though more details on what this is haven’t as yet come forward.

And there are a host of changes due to take from September. Here are a few of them:

Doug Tweddle establishes a Frontiers and International Directorate.

There is a new single Risk & Intelligence Directorate, led by Stuart Hartlib.

Naomi Ferguson is to become director of Local Compliance.

Geoff Lloyd, formerly director, central compliance, is to be director of Corporation Tax and VAT, being replaced by Mike Norgrove.

Theresa Middleton becomes head of the HMRC Agent and Adviser Unit which moves from Central compliance.

Apart from those, which are enough changes to be getting on with, the department is also putting the finishing touches to a ‘Five Year Plan’ and has Gershon to contend with too.

Its Gershon plans were partly covered by Private Eye recently, I’m told.

A story said that the department was cutting investigators, potentially forfeiting £240m in uncollected tax as a result.

I say they were partly covered because the department says that the memo the magazine saw was only one part of a broader picture – and that the investigators would be moved elsewhere where they would raise even more money.

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