Gary Ashford Presidential Outgoing Speech

It has been an honour to serve as CIOT President for the past year. I would like to thank everyone who has made this a rewarding and enjoyable time.

It has not, perhaps, had the drama of some of the recent years.

Glyn and Peter had the pandemic.

Susan’s year saw two monarchs, three prime ministers and four chancellors.

But there has still been plenty to get on with and to be honest the year has flown by!

In my year as President, CIOT has brought together economists, tax advisers, academics, politicians, civil servants and many others to debate some of the most contentious issues in tax: non-doms, VAT on school fees, the future of income tax and, with Pascal Saint-Amans, international tax reform.  Leading the speeches at the Parliamentary drinks reception last June was a real honour- I’m sure previous Presidents will say the same!  On that front, I hope my Commons host for the evening, Craig Mackinlay, continues on his road to recovery. Like everyone, I was shocked to hear more about what he has been through for the last year but have huge respect for the way he stood up in Parliament earlier this week.

At party conferences in Manchester and Liverpool we joined the IFS and politicians to explore the tax challenges for the next Parliament.

I joined the Tax Institute of Hong Kong at their annual conference to talk global tax collaboration…

… and the City of London to talk tax and sustainable finance at a joint roundtable. This was both intellectually stimulating and also something I’m particularly interested in- for me financial services are a key part of the UK economy and if we can lead the world in doing that in a more environmentally friendly way then it is a “win win” for our wonderful country.

We’ve celebrated the contribution of our volunteers with a reception at the fabulous Design Museum.

And we’ve notched up notable technical successes on issues from low income trusts to off-payroll working.

It’s been a year of achievement and celebration -

- The 25^th anniversary of LITRG, which continues to go from strength to strength. Congratulations to LITRG for winning the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Taxation in 2023-24 by a Not-for-profit Organisation’ at the Tolley’s Taxation Awards, which took place on Thursday 16 May at the Hilton London Metropole.

- The fabulous first full year of our Diploma in Tax Technology.

- Reaching – and passing – the milestone of 20,000 members.

Our members

A particularly rewarding experience was when I had the pleasure of welcoming Rachael Brown as the 20,000^th member of our CTA family earlier this year. I was delighted, and honoured, to meet so many of our other newly qualified CTAs at our Admissions Ceremonies at that same event in March.  I hope our new members see their membership as a springboard for their future success.

I have really enjoyed meeting so many members and friends of the Institute at branch and national events around the country during the past year, including a return to my amazing home nation for our Edinburgh lunch earlier this month.

On these travels I always try to talk to members about what‘s bothering them professionally, and what they want the Institute to be doing more of.

HMRC service levels

One issue that has come up more than any other over the last 12 months is of course….

HMRC service levels.

At the AGM a year ago I spoke about how poor service levels aren’t just a pain for taxpayers and their advisers, they harm tax compliance, hinder business activity and erode trust in the tax system.  Over the past year I’ve made that argument in the press, to politicians and to HMRC themselves.

The announcement in March of big, permanent cuts to phone helplines to some extent brought matters  to a head.

Our response was clear and immediate.  I said the cuts were misguided, that I was deeply dismayed, and that, if last year’s temporary closure was – as I said at the time - a ‘flashing indicator’ that HMRC could not cope, the new announcement was a blinding light.

Our reaction – and that of other bodies – seems to have had an impact.

HMRC’s chief executive Jim Harra told the Treasury Committee last month that ministers had expressed their concern about the “strength of the reaction and about the fact that the reaction was not just political reaction, it was actually [these are his words] a genuine concern about how this was all going to work.”

As a result they and he “quickly agreed that the right thing to do was not to proceed with it and to listen to the concerns… to take them on board and replan.”

I welcome this approach, and we have already begun to discuss with HMRC how we might help and offer ideas as they seek to move forward.

In that spirit I also welcome the announcement two weeks ago of an additional fifty one million pounds of funding to improve service on HMRC’s phonelines. I said a year ago that ministers need to resource HMRC properly for the job they are asking them to do. This is a step towards that. However, let’s be clear: even with this change HMRC’s customer service budget is still falling, based on heroic assumptions about the savings that can be made through digitalisation or at least about the speed with which they can be achieved.

CIOT are not Luddites. Encouraging people to use online services is sensible and can yield efficiencies. But the approach cannot be forcing people into digital services by withdrawing phone help. It has to be taking people with you by making the online option the attractive choice.

Technology - digitalisation and AI

And what do attractive digital services look like?

I encourage you to take a look at the seven ‘principles of digitalisation’ we and ATT published last month – produced mostly with Making Tax Digital in mind but carrying broad lessons for all kinds of digital processes.

We’ve continued to engage with HMRC on MTD through the year. But we continue to have concerns about how the programme is being implemented and whether it will achieve its objectives. The pilot launched in the last few weeks should be assessed against the principles we have set out.

We’ve also been doing some thinking around AI. The Institute has set up a group to look at the implications and impact on us and our members. And we held a useful roundtable discussion on this in Edinburgh recently. 

I’ve also continued to take a keen interest in crypto, as chair of the CIOT’s crypto assets working group andlead on this for CFE Tax Advisers Europe, where I’m also part of its broader Tax Technology Committee.

What is clear is that we need to continue to be adaptive, and this will be an ongoing process for the rest of our working lives.  Again I want to sing the praises of our Diploma in Tax Technology – only 18 months old but already going strong with more than 130 graduates. There will be a new marketing campaign and a podcast series that complements it planned for the next few months. I encourage you to take a look, if you haven’t already.

Simplification and regulation

Two other important areas I’d like to report back on briefly are simplification and regulation.

On simplification we’ve been doing our best to hold ministers to their promise to ‘embed… simplification into the institutions of government’.

This included taking part in a roundtable hosted by the new Financial Secretary in January, where our representatives once again emphasised the need to ensure simplification is not just something occasionally done to bits of the tax system but rather is a core part of the policy making process.

On regulation we put in our response this week to the government’s long-awaited consultation on raising standards, setting out how a framework based around professional body membership is the best way forward. Thank you to all of our members who took part in the survey, the results of which fed into our submission. We now await the government’s response.

Concluding remarks

So that’s it from me.

Thank you for the honour of being your President over the past 12 months.

Thank you to my colleagues at Harbottle and Lewis, and my family – my wife Clare and sons Alistair and Ewan – for being a constant support in my life.

Thank you to Council colleagues and to Helen Whiteman, the executive team, and other CIOT staff for their support over the past year.

I’m very pleased to hand over the reins to the extremely capable incoming President, Charlotte Barbour, and to wish her and the incoming Deputy President, Nichola Ross Martin, and Vice President, Paul Aplin, every success in their new roles.

Charlotte, over to you.