The Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) appointed its youngest ever president this week – and Simon Braidley is keen to haul the body into the 21st century and engage with younger members.
Granted, at 46 you could hardly call him ‘young’ but for a profession that’s as full of grey heads as Harry Rampling’s fish and chip shop on pension day, he’s a spring chicken.
His presidential priority, according to the official statement, is to ‘engage the membership’, but when questioned about the succession crisis facing the profession (and by association the bodies that regulate it), he is candid.
“We’ve got to make tax sexier. The general perception of the accountancy profession is that it’s all men in grey suits”.
Tax as a vocation
Now entering its 21st year, the ATT is itself coming of age. The recent appointment of its first technical officer John Kimmer will see it beefing up its capabilities getting involved with technical debates. It’s also launching a new website in the coming months which will offer “a more interactive experience” for members and is keen to dip its toe into social media – although cautiously at first. “We’ll be looking (at social media tools) for students and younger members in particular since it’s how they communicate nowadays, but we don’t want to launch it haphazardly, we’d like to have a plan in place and make sure we get it right”.
Another barrier for the ATT is that when people think of the profession, it’s accountancy and not taxation that comes to mind, says Braidley: “If you ask the man on the street who looks after their tax affairs and completes their tax returns, they’ll say it’s an accountant, not a tax adviser”. This is an issue the ATT hopes to address with a new marketing strategy aimed at raising the profile of tax advisers.
Improving access to tax advice
Another issue on the agenda for Braidley and the ATT is that of members’ interaction with HMRC. Having worked for the Inland Revenue (as it was then) and large international accountancy firms, as well as running his own practice, Braidley sees the issues and stresses in both corners.
“When I worked for the Revenue, it was the biggest tax employer in the country and it still is – but at far reduced numbers to what it was,” he explained.
Working in a district office in the South London, Braidley remembers the days when taxpayers and advisers had access to an enquiry desk where anybody – whether their tax affairs were dealt with by the district or not – could come in for tax advice. “Nowadays they’ve moved away from that type of contact and, with the proposed cuts by this government and those already made by the previous administration, the number of walk in contact centres is diminishing. This has a huge impact for taxpayers who are unrepresented – there really needs to be a face to face contact point for the Revenue locally”.
This lack of a ‘human face’ for the department has generated many horror stories in recent years. “I recently heard of a case where someone was trying to deal with a local office regarding the submission of some company accounts. The enforcement office was also involved and knew the accounts had been submitted, but even the enforcement office couldn’t get through to the tax office that was actually reviewing the accounts. The number was constantly engaged, or would simply ring and ring and simply play a message saying they were experiencing high call volumes and people should call back later.
“There have also been numerous problems with the 64-8 agent authority forms. The Revenue offered a highly publicised 48 hour turnaround on these forms but I heard of many cases where people were left waiting between three and five weeks and it was impossible to contact them”.
Despite these problems, the department is learning from the error of its ways, says Braidley. “There are things that haven’t been quite right in the Revenue system but I do believe HMRC is trying to listen to what the profession is saying, particularly via initiatives like the Working Together group.
“What I would advise is that if people do have issues and concerns, they should find out who their Working Together representatives are and make use of that channel, because the feedback from that is starting to influence what’s happening at the top level”.