Areas of Expertise
Income & Corporation Tax Investigations.
I have 30+ years of ‘hands on experience’ which includes 10 years
working and managing tax investigation cases at local level. I was a
District Inspector in Liverpool plus I have 14 years Special
Compliance Office experience in Liverpool and Edinburgh (11 as Group
Leader). I have personally been involved with in excess of 750 SCO cases
including some where criminal proceedings have been
considered/implemented.
I also have 10 years experience as the Head of HMRC Direct Taxes Compliance Learning Team. I have worked in partnership with the HMRC Compliance Strategy specialists to devise and deliver the learning intended to develop the compliance skills of Inspectors. This includes technical and investigation knowledge and the application of that knowledge. Examples are:
- The Inspector of Taxes Development Programme. This is the examinable training programme that officers undertake to train them to examine ITSA and CTSA Returns and Accounts.
- Range of Modules on Information Powers, Private Side Examination, Records Reviews Compliance Team working, Interviewing/Questioning Skills.
- The impact of the Human Rights Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act on HMRC Investigation work.
- I devised the computerised case study that HMRC currently use to train Inspectors to teamwork cases and how best to use Computer Audit Techniques including IDEA and SPACE when examining business records.
- I have also undertaken compliance training assignments overseas on behalf of HMRC for Greece, Republic of Ireland and the Isle of Man / Channel Islands.
- I have also delivered Fraud Awareness courses for the Scottish Police College and delivered Compliance Overview courses for the Accountancy profession.
In summary I have been directly involved in designing and in some instances actually delivering the training that HMRC officers receive on how to examine the taxpayer's returns and business records.