HMRC appoints new director general of customer strategy and tax design

HM Revenue and Customs has announced the appointment of Jonathan Athow to the role of director general for the customer strategy and tax design group, following the departure of Ruth Stanier from the role as she undertakes a 12-month career break.

Mr Athow is currently deputy national statistician and director general for economic statistics at the Office for National Statistics.

He joined the Office for National Statistics following a four-year stint at HMRC as chief economist and director of knowledge, analysis and intelligence.

HMRC CEO Jim Harra made the announcement on Monday, welcoming Mr Athow ahead of his start at the beginning of October.

“I’m pleased that Jonathan Athow will be stepping into this critical leadership role working to build a trusted, modern tax administration system – one that brings in revenue for public services, makes it easy to get it right, is valued and trusted,” Mr Harra said.

Mr Athow said he was delighted to be returning to HMRC.

“It is a department that has done so much to support the country during the pandemic and will be hugely important as the economy recovers in providing the taxation to fund our public services and supporting businesses and people across the UK,” Mr Athow said.

“I am excited to be joining HMRC and customer strategy and tax design at this important time.”

The director general of customer strategy and tax design oversees a group of teams who use customer insight to design better tax strategy, assurance, policies, products and processes.

Mr Athow will also be responsible for advising ministers on UK tax policy and producing the strategy for all of HMRC’s core functions.