Deputy Director, Policy, Making Tax Digital, HM Revenue & Customs, Croydon

Summary

In July 2020, HMRC and HM Treasury published a ten-year Tax Administration Strategy setting out some of the key reforms we need to achieve our new Vision, including:

Highlighting the need for the UK to have a fully digital tax system that work closer to real-time while operating in a way that is fair and builds trust.
Allowing people and businesses to pay the right tax with ease, while providing greater resilience and responsiveness in times of crisis.

Our new Strategic Objectives set out our direction for the next five years to support our vision and provide a platform for us to deliver our Strategy to:

Collect the right tax and pay out the right financial support.
Make it easy to get tax right and hard to bend or break the rules.
Maintain taxpayers’ consent through fair treatment and protect society from harm.
Make HMRC a great place to work.
Support wider Government economic aims through a resilient, agile tax administration system.

We’re proud of the role we’ve played in supporting some of the most significant recent events in the UK including the pandemic response and UK Transition, through the agility and professionalism of our people.

Job description

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced policy professional to develop not only their policy leadership across heads of duty and strategic cross-cutting issues, but also gain experience in a project delivery environment.

The post holder will oversee policy for the programme. This includes decisions on policy design, legislation and advice for fiscal events.

Key responsibilities and duties include:

Leadership and management of a team of 20 people and wide influence on teams across HMRC involved in strategy, policy, communications, requirements, design, delivery and operational implementation.

Driving policy on MTD for ITSA, including overseeing work to finalise and lay secondary legislation and guidance, and responding to challenges from customers and delivery colleagues – for example overseeing advice on scope adjustments.

Overseeing policy on MTD for VAT, including keeping guidance up to date, and chairing a monthly compliance working group to chase the tail of mandated businesses who have still not signed up.

Overseeing work on MTD for Corporation Tax, including issuing a summary of consultation responses and a government response to the consultation in Autumn 2021, and work on next steps.

Influencing and overseeing work on policy issues relating to third party software. For example keeping updated HMRC’s requirements of MTD software developers and taking proactive steps to understand and respond to compliance challenges.

Overseeing MTD advice for fiscal events, including the 2021 Spending Review, where pre-agreed funding for MTD VAT and ITSA from 2022 needs to be confirmed and there are key decisions about priorities and next steps for the programme.

Signing off replies to all parliamentary questions, freedom of information requests and ministerial correspondence prepared by the team.

Playing a full and active part in the MTD Senior Leadership Team, working particularly closely with the deputy director responsible for MTD’s external stakeholder relationships, and supporting development and career routes for policy professionals working in Transformation Group.

Responsibilities

Applicants should be able to demonstrate their experience and capability in the following areas:

Essential Criteria.
Knowledge and experience of policy making in the Civil Service.

An experienced leader and manager who empowers and supports their team to influence and deliver. Able to set out the bigger picture and vision in an engaging and inspiring way.

Demonstrable ability to flexibly prioritise work and resource to priorities.

Excellent communication skills, including experience of structuring and presenting complex information accurately, verbally and in writing, for a range of audiences to drive the right policy decisions

Building strong relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders across Government, and working well with Government ministers.

Desirable Criteria
Experience of legislation, tax, and working in a programme environment.

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension