One minute with... Susan Ball

Congratulations on becoming CIOT president. What’s your key focus for the year?

Thank you. My focus is to hopefully get the institute to make the best of the new hybrid world for the benefit of its members, and to leave the post having helped the CIOT to move forward in some important ways. There are lots of important things happening, such as the new diploma in tax technology we are developing. Also, HMRC service levels are still nowhere near where they should be, which we continue to press them on. Over the summer, we expect a further consultation on regulation of the profession, which will be another major focus. Rather than creating a costly new government regulator – which I understand is one of the options being considered – we will be arguing that the most effective way forward is to build on the existing work by professional bodies such as CIOT.

There are also some things to celebrate, such as getting back to ‘in person’ events, and the fact that our current vice president is also a woman – Charlotte Barbour (which will greatly improve on the fact I was only the fourth woman to be president in our 90-year history).

If you could make one change to tax, what would it be?

Many employers find themselves on the wrong end of HMRC compliance reviews just because they haven’t understood, or applied, the current employment status tests properly, or because of the inherent greyness surrounding them. It’s based on case law, which is sometimes interpreted differently for tax and employment law purposes respectively. So I really think that we need to get a better grip on this, and a statutory test would help all concerned. The fact that currently employers must understand the latest case law to get the answer right and can be held liable where they get it wrong, despite taking reasonable care, does not seem to me to be fair, efficient, or satisfactory. With a statutory test, I’d hope all parties could clearly understand what category should apply.

What do you know now that you wish you’d known at the start of your career?

I wish I had realised that it is just as important, not only to stay current on tax matters, but to develop other skills as well. These other skills include building relationships with clients and colleagues, understanding quickly how clients’ businesses work, learning how to juggle competing priorities and manage different stakeholders – and, for those of us in professional practice, managing the budgets on your jobs.

What are clients currently asking about?

In my role at RSM UK, I am helping a number of clients who have concerns over the use of off-payroll workers (agency rules/IR35 etc.) and the processes and procedures they have in place to cover these rules. We also get a lot of requests to assist clients who are subject to HMRC reviews covering CJRS, NMW and PAYE compliance. And, of course, there are always lots of questions around benefits in kind; in fact, the breadth of these questions illustrates the inherent complexity of our current taxation system.

You might not know this about me but...

I suffer from dyslexia. On the upside, my dyslexia means that I am very detail orientated, and I can get my head around complex information faster, simplifying it quickly. I have a creative mind, especially in relation to finding solutions to problems or client issues. But the downside is that sometimes I can find it hard to express myself, or to read aloud from a script. And of course, I have issues with spelling, but these days, thanks to technology, it’s more likely to be spotted and corrected.

I realised that I was putting added stress on myself by not talking about it and keeping it a ‘secret’ and sometimes avoiding tasks entirely that I thought would be too challenging. This in turn can (and did on occasions) have an impact on well-being and self-worth. So, at the time of taking on the presidency of CIOT, I decided that I needed to confront these issues and fears, which is why I am talking about it now – but wish I had done so years ago!