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New Institute President promises focus on education

New Institute President promises focus on education

In his inaugural speech at the Institute’s AGM this afternoon, Chris Jones, who succeeds Anne Fairpo as the Institute’s President today, will say:

“What do I stand for as President of The Chartered Institute of Taxation? That is simple and straightforward and can be summed up in three words: education, education, education!

“Education of the public as to their obligations to the tax system by providing greater clarity and transparency on how a citizen’s biggest expense in life is computed. This has already been kicked off with the Schools Project I am working on with the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group.

“Education of tax agents as to the scale and nature of the changes we face in this new digital age. There will definitely be a need to modernise and demonstrate how we add value to our clients. The emphasis will certainly shift from processing data from one system into another, to providing proactive advice on an ongoing basis as to the options open to clients to secure tax reliefs and deductions to which they are rightly entitled. The way that underlying transactions are posted in the clients’ software packages will be instrumental to this.

“Education of HMRC that they need an honest friend to help them on this journey. More importantly, they need the trust of taxpayers in order to drive the digital agenda and that can only happen where service is put first in the list of priorities. We are here to help, we want to make it work, just like they do, so let’s work together, listen and learn from each other.”

 



Notes for editors

1.       The new CIOT President

Chris Jones is the Director of Tax Markets at LexisNexis and as such has overall responsibility for everything the company delivers under the eminent Tolley brand. He chairs the CIOT’s Communications and Brand Management Committee and has a keen interest in promoting the public understanding of the tax system. He is also a well-known name on the CPD lecturing circuit.

2.       The new CIOT Deputy President, replacing Chris Jones, is Bill Dodwell. Bill is Head of Deloitte’s Tax Policy Group. The group manages tax knowledge, training and consultations with HM Treasury, HMRC and OECD. Bill is chairman of the CIOT’s Technical Committee. He specialises in international corporate taxation. He was also a member of the interim Advisory Panel on the GAAR.

The new CIOT Vice President, replacing Bill Dodwell, is John Preston. John is a consultant, trustee and non-executive director. He retired from PwC in June 2014 where he was a member of the Global Tax Leadership team responsible for External Relations, Regulation and Policy. He is Chairman of the Institute's Examination Committee, a past chairman and ongoing member of Education Committee and past chairman of Membership and Branches Committee.

3.       The Chartered Institute of Taxation

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) is the leading professional body in the United Kingdom concerned solely with taxation. The CIOT is an educational charity, promoting education and study of the administration and practice of taxation. One of our key aims is to work for a better, more efficient, tax system for all affected by it – taxpayers, their advisers and the authorities. The CIOT’s work covers all aspects of taxation, including direct and indirect taxes and duties. Through our Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG), the CIOT has a particular focus on improving the tax system, including tax credits and benefits, for the unrepresented taxpayer.

The CIOT draws on our members’ experience in private practice, commerce and industry, government and academia to improve tax administration and propose and explain how tax policy objectives can most effectively be achieved. We also link to, and draw on, similar leading professional tax bodies in other countries.  The CIOT’s comments and recommendations on tax issues are made in line with our charitable objectives: we are politically neutral in our work.

The CIOT’s 17,000 members have the practising title of ‘Chartered Tax Adviser’ and the designatory letters ‘CTA’, to represent the leading tax qualification.