Who runs your taxes

HMRC collects it, Treasury ministers decide the rules, and neither can simply wave your individual case away — there's a real ladder for that. Here's who actually holds each role, how to reach them, and the official complaints route if HMRC gets your own case wrong.

Mechanism, not opinion.This page describes who holds which office and how the machine is built to work — not a verdict on any tax, minister or government. Names are role-anchored and date-stamped (people move on; roles don't) — check the linked official page for who holds a role today.

HMRC is non-ministerial — why a minister can't touch your case

gov.uk states plainly: “HMRC is a non-ministerial department, supported by 1 public body.” It is “a non-ministerial Department established by the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act (CRCA) 2005”, with responsibility vested “in Commissioners appointed by the King” — and it “report[s] to Parliament through our Treasury minister who oversees our spending.”

Plain words: day-to-day administration of the tax system legally sits with HMRC's own Commissioners, not with politicians. A minister or MP cannot simply order HMRC to change the outcome of yourindividual case — that's deliberate; it protects impartiality. The routes that dowork for an individual case are the statutory appeal/review, the complaints ladder below, the Adjudicator, and the Ombudsman via your MP. Your MP can still chase HMRC on your behalf and raise systemic issues — but that's the policy lever, not this one.

Sources: HMRC — GOV.UK, HMRC — About us.

The policy partnership: Treasury decides, HMRC delivers

HMRC's own gov.uk page states it verbatim: “The Treasury lead on strategic tax policy and policy development. HMRC leads on policy maintenance and implementation. This arrangement for policy making is known as the ‘policy partnership’.”

Plain words: Treasury ministers decide what the tax rules should be — rates, new taxes, reliefs, announced at Budgets. HMRC keeps the machine running — collects the tax, runs the systems, administers the existing rules. Want a rule changed? Treasury is the decision-maker. Your levers covers that route. Got a problem with how an existing rule was applied to you? That's HMRC, and the rest of this page.

The two departments are linked at the top: the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury — the current tax minister — chairs the HMRC Board.

Source: HMRC — About us (the policy partnership).

Who actually holds each role

Every card below is role-anchored — the office is the durable fact; the named office-holder carries the date it was last checked. An amber badge means an entry hasn't been re-verified in over 90 days; check the linked page before repeating it as current.

HM Treasury — decides tax policy

Chancellor of the Exchequer

The government's chief financial minister: sets fiscal policy, including presenting the annual Budget.

Rt Hon Rachel Reeves MP — as of 2026-07-06

Write to HM Treasury (the Correspondence and Enquiry Unit) yourself and an official replies, or ask your own MP to write on your behalf and a minister must sign the reply.

Official page

Chief Secretary to the Treasury

Runs public spending, spending reviews and in-year spending controls; also public sector pay, welfare spending and tax credits.

Lucy Rigby KC MP — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Financial Secretary to the Treasury

Currently covers the growth mission, business regulation and Treasury business in the House of Lords — this role's current gov.uk page lists no tax responsibilities.

Lord Livermore — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury

The tax minister right now: owns the whole UK tax system (direct, indirect, business, property and personal taxation), tax administration policy, the Finance Bill, customs and VAT at the border — and chairs the HMRC Board.

Daniel Tomlinson MP — as of 2026-07-06

Write to HM Treasury yourself (official reply) or ask your own MP to write for you (ministerial reply, ~20 working days).

Official page

Economic Secretary to the Treasury

Covers financial-services regulation and markets, including personal savings and pensions tax policy (ISAs) and financial-services taxes such as the bank levy and insurance premium tax.

Rachel Blake MP — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

HMRC — runs the system day to day

First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive

Runs HMRC day to day and is accountable to Parliament for it.

John-Paul Marks CB — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Second Permanent Secretary and Deputy Chief Executive

Deputises for HMRC's Chief Executive across the department's operations.

Angela MacDonald — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Chief Finance Officer and Tax Assurance Commissioner

Signs off HMRC's largest tax settlements and gives assurance the law is applied evenly.

Justin Holliday — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Director General Customer Compliance

Runs enquiries, checks and investigations — the part of HMRC that opens a compliance check on your affairs.

Penny Ciniewicz — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Director General Customer Services

Runs the helplines, post, webchat and online accounts most sole traders and landlords use.

Myrtle Lloyd — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Director General Customer Strategy and Tax Design

Designs how taxes are administered day to day, working the "policy partnership" with HM Treasury.

Jonathan Athow — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Director General Borders and Trade

Runs customs, excise and border-tax administration.

Carol Bristow — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Chief People Officer

Runs HMRC's workforce and people strategy.

Helen Pickles — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Chief Digital and Information Officer

Runs the systems behind Making Tax Digital, HMRC's APIs and the developer hub.

Daljit Rehal — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Lead Non-Executive Director, HMRC Board

Leads the independent, non-executive members who advise and challenge the HMRC Board.

Dame Jayne-Anne Gadhia — as of 2026-07-06

Official page

Independent scrutiny

The Adjudicator's Office

Free and independent of HMRC: investigates whether HMRC (or the Valuation Office Agency) applied its rules, standards, guidance and codes of practice fairly and consistently, once HMRC's own tier 1 and tier 2 complaint reviews are done.

Mike McMahon — as of 2026-07-06

Phone 0300 057 1111, write to The Adjudicator's Office, PO Box 11222, Nottingham, NG2 9AD, or use the online form — after completing HMRC's tier 1 and tier 2 reviews.

Official page

Office for Budget Responsibility

Gives independent and authoritative analysis of the UK's public finances, forecasting at least twice every financial year; by law it may consider government policy but may not model what alternative policies would do.

Official page

Parliament

Your MP

Can make confidential enquiries with officials or a government minister on your behalf and refer individual cases to the Parliamentary Ombudsman — but generally only acts for people in their own constituency.

Write via House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA (include your own address so they know you're a constituent); phone the Commons switchboard 020 7219 3000 and ask for their office; or find them via members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP or WriteToThem.

Official page

Chair, Treasury Committee

Chairs the Commons committee appointed to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of HM Treasury, HMRC and associated public bodies — it does not look at individual cases or complaints.

Dame Meg Hillier MP — as of 2026-07-06

Email [email protected] or write to Treasury Committee, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA; the committee reads all submissions on policy/administration but does not reply to everyone.

Official page

Chair, Public Accounts Committee

Chairs the Commons committee that examines the value for money of HMRC's spending and programmes, drawing on National Audit Office reports.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP — as of 2026-07-06

Email [email protected] or write to Public Accounts Committee, House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

Official page

Chair, Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee

Chairs the Lords sub-committee that scrutinises each year's Finance Bill from the point of view of technical tax-administration issues, clarification and simplification (not the tax rates themselves — that's Commons business).

Lord Liddle — as of 2026-07-06

Email [email protected] or write to Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee, House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW; the sub-committee issues its own calls for written evidence each autumn.

Official page

These are routes for you to contact them

Every channel in the table below is a route for youto reach HMRC — not the other way round. HMRC will never call, text or email you out of the blue demanding payment, threatening arrest, or asking for your bank details, PIN or password. If you get a message like that, it is not HMRC — it's a scam.

Check anything that looks suspicious against HMRC's own guidance on identifying scam phone calls, emails and text messages before you click a link or ring back a number that didn't come from this page or gov.uk. And please stay civil on the phone or in writing — the people answering these lines aren't the ones who set the rules.

Official HMRC contact routes

Every row below is copied exactly from its own gov.uk contact page — click through to check it's still current before you rely on it.

Who it's for	Channel	Details	Hours
Self Assessment (sole traders, landlords)	Webchat / digital assistant	https://www.tax.service.gov.uk/ask-hmrc/chat/self-assessment — registrations, returns, penalties, refunds, activation codes.	—
Self Assessment (sole traders, landlords)	Phone	0300 200 3310 (outside the UK: +44 161 931 9070).	Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Closed bank holidays.
Self Assessment (sole traders, landlords)	Post	Self Assessment, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AS, United Kingdom (postal-only address — no public counter).	—
Income Tax / PAYE	Phone	0300 200 3300 (textphone 0300 200 3319; fax +44 135 535 9022).	Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
VAT / customs / excise	Phone	0300 200 3700 (textphone 0300 200 3719; outside UK +44 2920 501 261).	Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
National Insurance	Phone	0300 200 3500 (textphone 0300 200 3519; outside UK +44 191 203 7010).	Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Agents and advisers formally authorised to act for clients	Phone	0300 200 3311 (Agent Dedicated Line: Self Assessment or PAYE for individuals) — not for progress-chasing before the promised reply date, or for information available online.	Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Closed bank holidays.
People whose health condition or personal circumstances make it difficult to contact HMRC (e.g. dyslexia, autism, reduced mobility, mental health conditions, financial hardship, domestic abuse, hospitalisation)	Extra Support Team (phone/video appointments, textphone, webchat, BSL interpreting)	First check eligibility at https://tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-can-get-help-from-hmrc-if-you-need-extra-support (have your National Insurance number ready), or ask any HMRC helpline adviser to refer you.	Webchat: Monday to Friday, 8am to 7:30pm; Saturday, 8am to 4pm. Closed bank holidays.
Making Tax Digital for Income Tax early testers (signed up for 2024-25 or 2025-26)	Dedicated customer support team	The phone number is in the letter confirming your MTD sign-up. Covers quarterly updates, the 2025-26 return, payments/refunds, deadlines, penalties and error reporting, SA and CGT — not 2026-27 onward, Corporation Tax, VAT, NI or software-product advice.	—
Freedom of Information requests to HMRC	Email / post	[email protected], or HMRC Freedom of Information Team, S1715, 6th Floor, Central Mail Unit, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE98 1ZZ.	—
Complaints — PAYE and Self Assessment	Post	PAYE and Self Assessment Complaints, HM Revenue and Customs, BX9 1AB, United Kingdom.	—
Complaints about HMRC's service or the Valuation Office Agency, after HMRC's tier 1 and tier 2 reviews	Phone / post / online form	Phone 0300 057 1111; post The Adjudicator's Office, PO Box 11222, Nottingham, NG2 9AD; online form at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/contact-the-adjudicators-office-online.	Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Closed weekends and bank holidays.
Complaints that remain unresolved after the Adjudicator's Office (the final tier)	Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman — via your MP only (the 'MP filter')	PHSO helpline 0345 015 4033; complaint checker at https://complaintform.ombudsman.org.uk/complaintchecker. By law, complaints about UK government departments must be referred to PHSO by an MP.	Monday to Thursday, 9am to 4pm; Friday, 8:30am to 12pm.
Software developers building on HMRC APIs (including Making Tax Digital)	Email	[email protected] — technical documentation (schema/validation rules), vendor IDs and testing credentials, testing feedback, and product recognition.	—

Need extra support to get in touch?

People whose health condition or personal circumstances make it difficult to contact HMRC (e.g. dyslexia, autism, reduced mobility, mental health conditions, financial hardship, domestic abuse, hospitalisation).

Extra Support Team (phone/video appointments, textphone, webchat, BSL interpreting): First check eligibility at https://tax.service.gov.uk/guidance/check-if-you-can-get-help-from-hmrc-if-you-need-extra-support (have your National Insurance number ready), or ask any HMRC helpline adviser to refer you.

Webchat: Monday to Friday, 8am to 7:30pm; Saturday, 8am to 4pm. Closed bank holidays.

What we're legally required to send when we contact HMRC on your behalf

Every API call our software makes to HMRC carries a set of fraud-prevention headers about your browser and device — required by UK law, not our choice.

See exactly what we send, and why

The complaints ladder — for when HMRC gets your case wrong

Complaints are not appeals: if you think a tax decision or penalty is wrong, use the appeal/review route instead. Complaints are for poor service — “unreasonable delays, mistakes and poor treatment.” Keep paying tax during a complaint to avoid interest and penalties.

Tier 1 — first review by HMRC. Complain online, by phone, or by post. Have your National Insurance number, UTR or VAT number ready, plus what happened and how you want it resolved. HMRC “investigate what happened and what should have happened.”
Tier 2 — second review by HMRC. A different person reviews how the first complaint was handled. “The decision from the second tier review is final” — within HMRC.
Adjudicator's Office. “This service is free and independent of HMRC” — it checks whether HMRC applied its rules, standards, guidance and codes of practice fairly and consistently, once tier 1 and tier 2 are both done. Phone 0300 057 1111; post The Adjudicator's Office, PO Box 11222, Nottingham, NG2 9AD; online form at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/contact-the-adjudicators-office-online.
Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman — via your MP. “By law, complaints about UK Government departments and other UK public organisations must be referred to us by an MP.” This is the “MP filter” — you cannot go to the Ombudsman directly. PHSO helpline 0345 015 4033; complaint checker at https://complaintform.ombudsman.org.uk/complaintchecker. By law, complaints about UK government departments must be referred to PHSO by an MP.

Sources: Complain about HMRC — GOV.UK, The Adjudicator's Office, PHSO — the MP filter.

Your own data is a Subject Access Request (SAR), not FOI

Freedom of Information gets you HMRC's policy, process, statistics and internal guidance. Personal data about yourselfis not FOI — that's a data-protection Subject Access Request (SAR) instead.

HMRC has its own dedicated route for that: request your own HMRC data via a Subject Access Request. It is free, and it is entirely separate from the FOI route below.

FOI, by contrast, is for asking how HMRC works — never your own tax affairs, and never anyone else's (HMRC will “neither confirm nor deny” holding information about an identifiable taxpayer). HMRC's FOI route: [email protected], or HMRC Freedom of Information Team, S1715, 6th Floor, Central Mail Unit, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE98 1ZZ.

Sources: Make a Freedom of Information request — GOV.UK, HMRC Subject Access Request — GOV.UK.

If you're in Scotland or Wales

Everything above still applies — HMRC still administers and collects your Income Tax, National Insurance and VAT, and the same contact routes and complaints ladder are yours to use too. What differs is who sets your income tax rates and bands: the Scottish Parliament sets Scottish rates and bands, and the Senedd sets Welsh rates of income tax. A complaint about the rate itself is a question for the devolved Parliament, not the UK routes on this page.

Sources: Scottish Income Tax — GOV.UK, Welsh rates of Income Tax — GOV.UK.

Is this actually about tax policy, not your own case?

Everything above is the individual-dispute door: a wrong bill, a stuck refund, bad service — the complaints ladder is built for exactly that. If instead you think a rule itself should change — a rate, a threshold, a Making Tax Digital deadline — none of the routes on this page will move it.

Your levers covers who actually decides tax policy and how to make yourself heard.