I decided, about a year ago, to retire from partnership with Clifford Chance LLP. It’s a job that I loved, and I’ve nothing but good things to say about Clifford Chance and my colleagues in London and around the world. It’s a genuinely meritocratic place, and an amazing way for people from all sorts of backgrounds, often (like mine) pretty ordinary, to reach a level of professional success that a generation ago was only available to a very few.
So I was and remain thankful for all the opportunities Clifford Chance gave me, but after almost 25 years I felt it was time to move on. My family deserves to see more of me, and I’m privileged enough to be able to make that decision. But I also felt I had a chance to use my accumulated expertise and contacts to make a difference, and achieve better tax policy in the UK and abroad. That’s what Tax Policy Associates Ltd is about. As the name suggests, it’s about tax policy, and about working in association with a bunch of different people: policymakers, academics, journalists, and others.
What’s my agenda? To improve public debate around tax policy, and improve tax policy. The two are linked. Change can’t be achieved from a purely tax-technical direction; it also can’t be achieved by gotcha stories about famous companies and celebrities avoiding tax (even when they are). It sounds trite to say we need both – but we need both.
What are my biases?
Many and varied.
I describe myself as a “tax realist”, with a firm bias towards evolution rather than revolution, and what is achievable and workable. Any tax proposal that doesn’t take account of past experience here and abroad, and which doesn’t consider likely taxpayer responses, should be DOA.
My political views have never been very well hidden – I believe the UK should have a larger and more generous welfare state, and a greater degree of redistribution, and tax should rise to pay for it. But that should be achieved with as few taxes as possible, and they should be simple and have as few exemptions as possible. Wide base, low rate.
Plenty of room for disagreement on the size of the state, and what tax rates should be – but no reason people across the spectrum can’t agree on what the taxes should be, and how they should work.
So that’s who I am, why I’m here, and what Tax Policy Associates Ltd aims to achieve. To help create better tax policy, in association with policymakers, academics, journalists – and anyone else interested in tax and improving our tax systems.
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