The views and comments we receive from Contributors are invaluable as they help to ensure that our responses to HMRC reflect the views of our membership and are informed by members’ practical experiences. Only by making well-considered submissions and contributions can we hope to influence the development of tax law and practice.

How the technical team works

The technical work of the ATT is set and guided by the Technical Steering Group (TSG) which meets quarterly. There is also a sub-group which focuses solely on VAT issues. The current membership of TSG and the VAT sub-group can be found here.

The TSG is supported by four Technical Officers who carry out much of the day to day work. This includes representing the ATT at meetings with HMRC/HMT, drafting responses to consultations and maintaining the technical pages of the ATT website.

The technical officers are Emma Rawson, Helen Thornley, Steven Pinhey and David Wright.

Emma has a specific focus on business taxes including VAT, Helen concentrates on personal and capital taxes issues, Steven covers tax disputes and management of taxes and David's emphasis is on private client taxes including trusts . You are welcome to contact Emma ([email protected]),  Helen ([email protected]), Steven ([email protected]) or David ([email protected]) directly, or all four on [email protected].

Where we would like your help

When a relevant consultation or draft of proposed legislation is published by the Government, we circulate this to our Contributors to ask for any initial comments or feedback. At this stage, any initial thoughts, observations or concerns are welcome. There may also be opportunities to join in conference calls with other Contributors and TSG members if the area is of particular interest.

As the response progresses, we may also circulate our draft responses. At this stage it is helpful to know if the response covers all the relevant issues and is firmly grounded in what is practical.

Any comments or observations that you have to offer at either stage will be much appreciated. We don’t expect you to contribute on everything you receive, appreciating that you may have limited time.

We are also happy to hear about any practical problems or issues you encounter on a day to day basis which we can take up with HMRC.

Confidentiality

In general, we will only be sharing information or consultations that are publicly available and asking for views. However, we do ask you to keep confidential any draft responses by the ATT that we circulate for comments. Equally, we will treat your comments as confidential.

Reference to your role as an ATT Contributor

We appreciate that you may wish to refer to the volunteering work that you do for the ATT.  Accordingly, we are happy for you to say that you are a Contributor on LinkedIn and on your CV provided that you have actually contributed recently and that it is clear that you are acting in a volunteer capacity and not as an employee of the ATT.

Questions or comments?

If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected] in the first instance.