By Dyfed Alsop, Chief Executive, Welsh Revenue Authority
On the 1 April 2018, the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA) officially opened for business: collecting and managing the first Welsh devolved taxes in over 800 years. It’s been a challenging and exciting 6 month of operations, and I’m so proud of what we have been able to achieve, with thanks to the ongoing support of numerous partners who have backed this journey so far.
In a short space of time, we have:
- implemented a bilingual, digital tax service
- recruited over 65 full-time members of staff across 16 professions
- collaborated with many partners to design, refine and implement our processes, systems and guidance
- continued to engage with a wide range of key stakeholders to help people to pay the right amount of tax at the right time.
We could not have reached this point without the continued support of taxpayer representatives, partner organisations, such as Natural Resources Wales, other stakeholders, including HMRC, and of course colleagues in Welsh Government. Their advice has been invaluable in starting to make a reality of delivering a fair tax system for Wales.
This partnership-led approach to tax administration is central to everything we do and hope to achieve at the WRA. ‘Our Approach’, which explains our way of operating, uses 3 Welsh terms ‘Cydweithio’, ‘Cardarnhau’, ‘Cywiro’ to explain how we will work collaboratively to ensure taxes are collected efficiently and effectively.
‘Our Approach’ was inspired by ‘Our Charter’, which consists of 8 shared beliefs, values and responsibilities, and the result of close work with a wide range of partners before we started operating in April. Both are explained in more detail in our first-year Corporate Plan. I would like to encourage feedback on our approach to tax. We want to engage, listen, learn and adapt.
Moving forward, I recognise that we need to continue to build upon this momentum, and I will provide more information in future newsletters as to how we will achieve this. For now, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved in supporting the development of the WRA. I look forward to continuing to serve as Chief Executive on this extraordinary journey.