Speeches by Murray.

“I am probably not going to say that right now. We will make sure to keep you updated on the progress we are making.”

“I will take that away and consider it.”

“We are certainly not planning to turn the helpline off. I think that some pensioners will want to phone up. Others will be happy to do it online.”

“We wanted to make sure that any tax changes were as fair as possible, as well as being sustainable. With the non-dom example that you mentioned, we were very keen to make sure it was replaced with an internationally competitive residence regime, which is why what we are introducing now is internationally competitive an…”

“It is a very interesting question. There are two parts to that question, so whether I think it has been understaffed and what the optimal size is. On the first question of whether they have been understaffed, given the fact that we can increase the staff by the level that we have set out and get this extra tax revenue …”

“With any organisation, and I have found this in roles before, there is a rate question as well as a destination question, if you like.”

“The Chancellor has been clear that the fiscal rules are non-negotiable, so the fiscal rules will be met. My job is to make sure we are implementing the commitments the Chancellor has already made at the autumn Budget and that we deliver them. That goes partly to my point around why I am so keen to be hands-on with deli…”

“The £6.5 billion that we committed to at the Budget is additional tax revenue, so that assumes a compliance yield underneath that. Some of the work that HMRC has to do is just to keep up with expectations about the base compliance yield. That would obviously take into consideration changes in taxpayer population and so…”

“Thanks very much for that question. The decision about employer’s national insurance contributions in the Budget is one of the toughest decisions that we took as a Government. We recognised that there would be consequences of it, but it is crucial to underline why we took that decision. We knew that, if we did not fix …”

“Part of the calculation was that we want to make sure that the smaller businesses have greater protection, because they might find it harder to respond to the changes that we are making. I know that businesses will have to make difficult decisions to respond to the changes in employer’s national insurance contributions…”

“One key thing that I was really keen on publishing at the same time as the Budget was our corporate tax roadmap. One thing that businesses said to me when we were in opposition as well as in government is that having stability, certainty and predictability is crucial for investment decisions. Although we recognise the …”

“The tax burden is high in this country. I am sure businesses would want it to be lower and we want it to be lower on working people. Overall, the tax burden should not go any higher than it needs to. In the context of a difficult fiscal situation, where it was very difficult and difficult decisions had to be taken, pro…”

“No. It is an interesting point. Obviously we keep all elements of tax policy under review. You would expect me to say that the Chancellor makes any announcements at fiscal events in the normal way. Anything we can do to support businesses to make investment is something that is central to our growth agenda. If we could…”

“We are still considering the medium and long-term approach to the tax advice market. The first thing that we need to do, which we have committed to doing and I think is a good first step, is to make sure there is a mandatory registration of tax advisers who interact with HMRC. That is very much a floor in terms of what…”

“That will all be in a consultation, which will be published—shall I say in the spring?—in early 2025.”

“I hope that it will be earlier than that.”

“I do not want to pre-empt the consultation being published, but there is work ongoing on that and the consultation will set out the options.”

“Any practitioner who engages with HMRC will have to be registered. It will be mandatory for anyone engaging with HMRC.”

“They will not be able to interact with HMRC without having that registration, yes.”

“It is a really important point. It is not sharing any secrets to say that customer service has not been at the place that it should be. The customer service metrics recently have ticked up. I am not claiming credit for that, but HMRC has managed to improve some of the metrics around answering the phones recently. There…”