Biographies of the Office of Tax Simplification team

The work of the Office is led by the Chair and Tax Director. Rt Hon Michael Jack and John Whiting have been appointed to these positions. They are supported by a small secretariat including tax experts from within HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the Treasury and external secondees from the tax and legal professions.

Rt Hon Michael Jack - Chairman

Michael Jack served as the Member of Parliament for Fylde between 1987 and 2010 following a career in business. He served in a number of ministerial posts, including as Financial Secretary to the Treasury from 1995 to 1997. During his time as Financial Secretary he was responsible for establishing the Tax Law Rewrite project, which was tasked with rewriting the UK’s direct tax legislation in clearer and simpler language.

John Whiting – Tax Director

John Whiting was appointed as the first Tax Policy Director of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) in 2009, following a long career with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) where he was a tax partner for 25 years. John is a past President of the CIOT and is regular speaker and commentator on a wide variety of taxation topics as well as being a member of the first-tier Tax Tribunal. He was awarded the OBE in 2008 for services to the tax profession.

Kelly Sizer

Kelly Sizer is a Technical Officer for the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG), an initiative of the Chartered Institute of Taxation to give a voice to those who cannot afford to pay for tax advice. She is also a volunteer for the charity TaxHelp for Older People. Before moving to LITRG in 2007, she spent ten years working for Grant Thornton in various private client taxation and advisory roles. Kelly qualified as a Chartered Tax Adviser in 2001 and was awarded the John Avery Jones medal for her performance in the CTA exams.

Sarah Anderson

Sarah Anderson is an experienced solicitor based in Devon with broad commercial experience and has specialised in advising clients on the full range of employee share plans. Her focus has been on advising individuals, start-up companies, family-owned businesses, wholly employee-owned and co-operative style companies, and AiM listed companies.

Tony Page ATII

Tony Page is a tax manager at Telefonica Europe which operates under the O2 brand in the UK. He trained as a tax specialist with Arthur Andersen and has spent the last 10 years working as a tax manager within industry for large companies. Tony specialises in employment taxes and is a member of the CBI Employment taxes subcommittee and the PAYE in Industry group.

Martin Gunson, FCA, FRSA, FFA, FIAB, FFTA, FCMI

Martin qualified as a chartered accountant in 1980 and after holding a number of accountancy posts he opened his own practice in 1984, setting up an office in Lytham in 1992, where he still remains. His clients include many pensioners, as well as small businesses and charities. Martin was a founding member of Blackpool Civic Trust where he is now a Trustee and Vice-President. For over 10 years he served as a Member of the Executive Council of the Board of Finance of the Diocese of Blackburn which he relinquished to allow him to serve as Foundation Governor, Chairman of the Board of Governors and Chairman of Finance at a local primary school. The interest which he is most proud of, however, is a local amateur orchestra which he founded in 1972 and which continues to perform fund raising concerts for both local and national charities.

Caroline Turnbull-Hall

Caroline Turnbull-Hall is a senior tax manager with PwC based in London. Having originally qualified as an accountant with Price Waterhouse, she moved into tax in 1989 and specialised in corporate tax. She spent a number of years with other firms working both in tax training and tax risk management before rejoining PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1999. She has specialised in tax training for clients since then. Caroline, who is also a qualified barrister, has a particular interest in the impact of Europe on the UK tax system.