Labour has today [9 April] appointed an expert panel to advise on
the party's work on improving tax compliance and modernising HM
Revenue & Customs (HMRC).
Earlier today, Shadow Chancellor announced plans to raise over
£5 billion a year by closing the gap between the amount of tax
owed and then collected.
To help deliver on these plans, the party has appointed a panel
of independent experts to inform Labour's plans for government,
including improving tax compliance and modernising and digitising
HMRC's offer.
The panel will be chaired by the Shadow Financial Secretary James
Murray and include:
- Sir Edward Troup, former HMRC Permanent Secretary and former
Treasury special adviser on tax.
- Dame Margaret Hodge MP, former chair of the Public Accounts
Committee.
- Bill Dodwell, former tax director of the Office for Tax
Simplification.
- Mike Bracken CBE, founding partner at Public Digital, and
founder and former executive director of the UK Government
Digital Service.
The panel has been asked to advise Labour on compliance and
modernisation, covering the overlapping areas of:
- Tax compliance, including strategic and operational issues
relating to increasing compliance and enforcement of the rules,
as well as any legislative changes to HMRC's powers and
penalties. This will also cover how HMRC works with others to
enforce the law.
- Digitisation, including the future of ‘making tax digital'
and the ‘single customer account', as well as other issues such
as replacing legacy systems, and taking full advantage of new
digital opportunities and technological advances.
- Customer service, including how to balance the needs of more
complex cases and vulnerable taxpayers and the need to offer
forms of support to all taxpayers.
The outputs of the panel will feed into Labour's manifesto and
plans for government.
Commenting on the appointment, James Murray, Labour's
Shadow Financial Secretary, said:
“I am grateful to the panel for agreeing to support us with this
incredibly important piece of work. I am looking forward to
working with them over the coming months as we prepare Labour's
plans for what we would do in government if we win the next
general election.”
Ends
Notes to editors:
- Labour has appointed a panel of independent experts to advise
the party on developing a high-level blueprint for how to improve
tax compliance, as well as how to modernise and digitise HMRC's
offer.
- The panel will be asked to advise us on our approaches to
compliance and modernisation, covering the overlapping areas of:
- Tax
compliance, including strategic and operational issues relating
to increasing compliance and enforcement of the rules, as well as
any legislative changes to HMRC's powers and penalties. This will
also cover how HMRC works with others to enforce the law.
-
Digitisation, including the future of ‘making tax digital' and
the ‘single customer account', as well as other issues such as
replacing legacy systems, and taking full advantage of new
digital opportunities and technological advances.
- Customer
service, including how to balance the needs of more complex cases
and vulnerable taxpayers and the need to offer forms of support
to all taxpayers.
- The work must support Labour's commitment to growing the
economy and reducing burdens on businesses. The scope of the
compliance and modernisation work will exclude:
- Setting a
budget for HMRC as an organisation, although discussion of where
to focus any additional investment and where savings can be made
may be included.
- Tax
policy outside of administration including rates, thresholds and
reliefs.
- The panel will meet likely three times before the general
election, chaired by James Murray. The exact number and timings
of meetings will depend on the timing of the election. The output
will feed into Labour's manifesto and plans for government.
The panel will include:
- Sir Edward Troup, former HMRC Permanent Secretary and former
Treasury special adviser on tax .
- Dame Margaret Hodge MP, former chair of the Public Accounts
Committee.
- Bill Dodwell, former tax director of the Office for Tax
Simplification.
- Mike Bracken CBE, founding partner at Public Digital, and
founder and former executive director of the UK Government
Digital Service
