AccountingWeb
News
Dave Hartnett chosen as acting HMRC chairman
HMRC has confirmed Dave Hartnett as acting chairman following the sudden resignation this week of his predecessor Paul Gray over the loss of two disks containing personal information on 25 million child benefit recipients.With a 30-year career in the tax department, Hartnett is a familiar face to accountants, and recently raised his profile with a series of podcasts and calls for consultation on improving the relationship between HMRC and tax agents.
Hartnett has worked for the Revenue since 1976 and spent a decade in investigations work before becoming director of the department's claims branch in 1991. By 1998 he was director of capital and savings, with policy responsibility for capital taxes, savings, pensions, share schemes, charity tax issues and stamp duty.
He eventually became deputy chairman of Inland Revenue and took on a dual role with Customs when the two departments were merged in 2004 to form HM Revenue and Customs.
Hartnett's official title was director-general (business), responsible for central policy, business customer units, Corporation Tax, VAT and anti-avoidance.
In addition to these responsibilities, Hartnett will add communications and marketing and the Valuation Office Agency to his portfolio. A spokesperson for HMRC explained that as when Paul Gray took over from David Varney last year, acting chairman was not seen as a caretaker role. "He's not sitting in the seat wating for a new person to be appointed. He's getting on with things," the official said.
News of the appointment first reached AccountingWEB in a comment from Jack Harper who quipped, "I applaud the appointment of 'Dave' (sic) Hairnet as the new chairman. A highly able and dangerous opponent has been sidelined into a job where he can do little harm."
At a tax conference last year Simon Sweetman noted the profession's tendency to characterise Hartnett as the "Prince of Darkness". Noting that Hartnett was one of the few members of the HMRC board with personal experience of tax work, Sweetman urged accountants not to hold him personally responsible for the increasingly heavy-handed approach to avoidance.
"Dave Hartnett has been more vocal than some of his predecessors, but there can be no doubt that when he talks about unacceptable avoidance, the message is coming from the government rather than the department," Sweetman wrote. "Demonising Dave Hartnett may be fun, but it is not going to help negotiations with the department, and that is what we need if we are to turn the supertanker of the tax system to keep it out of our boating pond."
Related articles
HMRC data security lapses - the final straw
Stewart Twynham's IT security diary - The tip of the iceberg
Focus on data protection
Number of comments: 2
AccountingWEB.co.uk 20-Nov-2007
Categories: Tax News
Times read: 4193
writing to everybody with their NINO plastered everywhere
CAN ANYBODY THINK
and while we are about it a root and branch examination of the NINO system would be a good idea - if there are 5m more NINOs than people what price what use ID cards
Mr Hartnett’s predecessor appears to have gained 12 months garden leave followed by a full pension as a result of recent events. Where is the incentive to be successful?
