HMRC celebrates tax award winners

The winners of HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) External Engagement Awards 2012 have been announced.

The annual awards, which recognise the contribution that business, professional and voluntary communities make in helping HMRC run the UK’s tax system, were given to:

Paul Aplin - Institute of Charted Accountants of England & Wales - for his strong public advocacy of the Joint Initiative on Service Delivery, established after a Treasury Select Committee report and subsequent meetings with Mike Clasper, then HMRC Chairman

Peter MacSwiney - ASM UK Ltd - for his role as trade side chairman of the Joint Customs Consultative Committee. For building strong relationships and communications between the trade and customs and enabling the facilitation of international trade to support the UK economy whilst maintaining customs control.

TaxAid - a charity providing specialist tax advice to customers on low incomes - for their innovative thinking and contribution to improving our services for most vulnerable customers.

Will Morris - Director of Global Tax Policy at General Electric - for championing ever-better customer understanding within HMRC, informing the public debate on large business and tax and condemning tax evasion and abusive tax arrangements with no commercial purpose.

Presenting the awards, David Gauke, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said:

“We are determined to make the tax system in the UK as simple and transparent as possible and are grateful for the contribution that those outside government make to the development, operation and delivery of the tax system. I’m delighted to present these awards today which showcase some of the excellent work going on between HMRC and the tax profession.”

Lin Homer, HMRC’s Permanent Secretary, said: 

“HMRC wants to make the tax system more transparent. But we can only achieve this by working in close partnership with the tax profession and voluntary sector. This is why tonight’s awards are so important – celebrating those who have made a real contribution.”

The awards took place yesterday (12 November) at 11 Downing Street and the winners were chosen by their peers in the tax community, using these criteria:

Commitment – has made a significant individual commitment, either over a concerted period of time or in relation to a specific initiative, to drive forward clarity and ease of use of the tax system, above and beyond their professional position. 

Customer focused – has brought and championed customer understanding which has enabled processes, legislation or policies to be better designed from the perspective of both the customer and HMRC. 

Clarity – through their commentary and active contribution they have identified the need for greater clarity and worked with HMRC to achieve a positive change and greater ease of use of the tax system. 

Notes to editors 

1. Members of the panel: 

External panel members:

John Andrews – Low Incomes Tax Reform Group

Rebecca Benneyworth – ICAEW

Francesca Lagerberg – Head of Tax, Grant Thornton

Internal panel members:

Lin Homer – Chief Executive

Edward Troup – Tax Assurance Commissioner

Melissa Tatton – Director, Large Business Service

Jim Harra - Director General, Business Tax

Peter Holland – Director Personal Tax Customer & Strategy

2.  2011 year’s winners were:

Sarah Gillett – UK Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein 

Paddy Millard – retired Chief Executive Officer, of Tax Help for Older People (TOP) 

Rebecca Benneyworth –  contributing editor of Accounting Web 

Mike Sufrin – retired Director of Tax, Rolls Royce 

2010 winners were:

John Andrews – Low Income Tax Reform Group 

Teresa Graham – chair of Administrative Burden Advisory Board (ABAB) 

Julie Hughff – tax partner, KPMG 

Peter van Dijk – Senior Vice President, Taxation TD Bank Financial Group

3. Photographs of the event are available on HMRC’s flickr channel.