Chris has spent over 40 years in tax administration, including over five years at KPMG where he has used his experience to help a diverse range of clients manage their tax obligations and relationships with HMRC, including dispute resolution (navigating HMRC’s red lines to find common ground on which to base a settlement) and interpretation of HMRC powers (penalties, information powers, senior accounting officer, corporate criminal offence, business risk review, etc.).
Chris joined the Inland Revenue in 1976, rising to be Head of Anti-Avoidance Group from June 2011 before leaving in 2014 to join KPMG. He chaired or sat on most of HMRC’s senior governance boards. He led HMRC’s policy and operational response to tax avoidance for almost ten years introducing DOTAS, the Code of Practice for Banks and the General Anti Abuse Rule. He was deputy director of HMRC’s Large Business Service for 3½ years where he played a leading role in designing and implementing HMRC’s large business strategy, leading some of the most high-profile dispute resolution projects. Chris led the 2006-07 OECD Tax Intermediaries Study, co-ordinating over 30 countries and designing a new approach to co-operative tax compliance that has been widely adopted globally.