Former CIOT president John Whiting honoured for services to tax
John Whiting, Tax Director of the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) and a former President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), is to be awarded the Institute’s prestigious Council Award. This is only the fourth time the award has been made.
The citation given for the Council Award is as follows:
“This [award] is given in recognition of his long service to the Institute and for his contribution to explaining the tax system to the public.”
In addition to running the OTS John Whiting is a non-executive director on the board of HM Revenue and Customs. From 2009 until 2013 he was the CIOT’s first Tax Policy Director. Before that he was a tax partner at PwC for 25 years.
Exchequer Secretary David Gauke welcomed news of the award, saying:
“I have worked closely with John for many years. He has consistently been an informed and respected voice in the national debate on taxation, providing support to both Oppositions and Governments. This award is richly deserved, not just for his work at CIOT but also for his public service at the Office of Tax Simplification and now as a non-executive member of HMRC’s Board.”
Stephen Coleclough, CIOT President, will make the presentation at the CIOT’s annual presidential lunch at the Savoy Hotel in London today. Commenting beforehand he said:
“I am absolutely delighted to be able to recognise John Whiting’s huge contribution to the CIOT, to the wider tax profession, to the tax policy process and to communicating the tax system to the public. But he assures me he is not retiring from tax yet.
“At a time when the tax profession has taken a lot of criticism – much of it unwarranted – from politicians and commentators John is the kind of person who gives tax advisers a good name, and whose career shows the difference a determined and gifted practitioner can make.
“John’s breadth of understanding of the whole UK tax system and his ability to explain it in plain English is unrivalled. Throughout John’s career at PwC, CIOT and the OTS, he has had a strong media presence which he has used to further the understanding of the UK tax system among those who have to cope with it.
“Tax simplification has long been a cause celebre for the CIOT, with John at the forefront of those working for it. We were all delighted when the new government set up an Office of Tax Simplification in 2010 and even more delighted when the Chancellor asked John to lead it. Under John’s guidance the OTS has already broken major ground in working up the sorts of reforms the system needs. The Institute offers John our continuing support in his ongoing efforts to unravel the spaghetti bowl of UK taxes.”
Notes to editors
1. John Whiting
John Whiting CTA, OBE was elected President of the Chartered Institute of Taxation in 2001 whilst working as a Tax Partner for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), where he was a partner for 25 years. On retiring from PwC John took up employment at the CIOT as Tax Policy Director in 2009. In 2010 John was appointed by the Chancellor as Tax Director of the newly established Office of Tax Simplification. He was appointed as a non-executive member of the board for HM Revenue & Customs in 2013, consequently stepping down as CIOT Tax Policy Director.
John is a regular speaker and commentator on a wide variety of taxation topics, as well as being a former member of the first-tier Tax Tribunal. In 2008 he was awarded an OBE in recognition for his contribution to the development of the tax profession and furthering the understanding of the UK tax system. John is also an active member of the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, a charitable initiative of the Chartered Institute of Taxation which campaigns to give a voice to those who cannot afford to pay for tax advice.
2. The three previous recipients of the CIOT Council Award are Ian Luder, John Avery Jones and John Andrews. Ian Luder is a former CIOT President who also served as Lord Mayor of London. John Avery Jones is a former CIOT President who has sat as a tax tribunal judge for more than 20 years. John Andrews is a former CIOT President and set up the CIOT’s Low Incomes Tax Reform Group to provide a voice for the unrepresented.
3. The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) is a charity and the leading professional body in the United Kingdom concerned solely with taxation. The CIOT’s primary purpose is to promote education and study of the administration and practice of taxation. One of the key aims is to achieve a better, more efficient, tax system for all affected by it – taxpayers, advisers and the authorities.
The CIOT’s comments and recommendations on tax issues are made solely in order to achieve its primary purpose: it is politically neutral in its work. The CIOT will seek to draw on its members’ experience in private practice, government, commerce and industry and academia to argue and explain how public policy objectives (to the extent that these are clearly stated or can be discerned) can most effectively be achieved.
The CIOT’s 17,000 members have the practising title of ‘Chartered Tax Adviser’ and the designatory letters ‘CTA’.
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