IFS residential conference 2023 - Taxing top incomes: design issues & challenges beyond the politics

Every two years, IFS holds a residential conference, aiming to facilitate high-level knowledge exchange between practitioners, policymakers and academics on key areas of policy and practice. 2023's conference, sponsored by CIOT and supported by Tax Journal, will look at the taxation of top incomes – broadly the top 1%, from those earning £130,000 a year to those making millions. The aim is to look beyond the political debate over how much to tax high incomes overall, and ask what challenges the current system faces and how it could made more rational and effective.

The conference addressed questions such as: What do we know about the composition of the top 1% and the tax they pay? How do they respond to taxation? Can the tax system promote entrepreneurship and venture capital in a way that is both effective and seen as fair?

How should different forms of employee remuneration be taxed? Could the tax system deal better with internationally mobile individuals? What can we learn from other countries?

Provisional programme

Keynote speakers:

• Jim Harra, First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive, HMRC
• Helen Miller, Deputy Director, IFS: Who are the top 1% and how much tax do they pay?
  With discussion from Andy Summers, Associate Professor of Law, LSE Law School, and Diana Hourani, Policy Analyst, OECD

After-Dinner Speaker:

Dan Neidle, Founder, Tax Policy Associates

Plenary sessions

Taxing income from business, entrepreneurship and venture capital

How should we tax dividends and capital gains? Which types of income should get special reliefs?

Chair: Jon Sherman, Director for Business, Assets and International, HMRC

Panellists:

• Stuart Adam,Senior Economist, IFS
• Ray McCann, independent consultant
• Sarah Perret, Head of the Personal Taxes and Property Unit, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD
• Chris Sanger, Partner, Tax Policy Leader, EY

Taxing employee remuneration

Are the special regimes for taxing particular forms of high earners’ remuneration – notably employee share schemes and pension contributions – well designed?  

Chair: Helen Miller, Deputy Director, IFS

Panellists:

• David Cohen, Partner, QG Littler
• Pete Downing, Deputy Director for Employment Status and Intermediaries Policy, HMRC
• Carl Emmerson, Deputy Director, IFS
• Mark Feldman, Group Tax Director, Smiths

Taxing internationally mobile individuals

What features of the tax regime are important for attracting mobile high-end workers & investors?

Chair: Nimesh Shah, CEO, Blick Rothenberg

Panellists:

• Jane Page, Senior Policy Advisor, Specialist Personal Tax, HM Treasury
• Giorgia Maffini, Special Advisor on Tax Policy, PwC
• Emma Chamberlain, Barrister, Pump Court Tax Chambers
• Arun Advani, Associate Professor, Economics Department, University of Warwick

What are the priorities for the future?

Chair: Paul Johnson, Director, IFS

Panellists:

• Judith Freedman, Emeritus Professor of Taxation Law and Policy, University of Oxford and Chair of the IFS Tax Law Review Committee
• Malcolm Gammie KC, One Essex Court
• Jonathan Athow, Director General, Customer Strategy and Tax Design, HMRC

Breakout sessions

Smaller group discussions on: 

• Data on incomes at the top – what don’t we know?
• Family businesses
• Partnerships
• Private equity
• Property income & ‘passive’ investment income
• Tax havens, offshore evasion, enforcement and international co-operation

The conference will take place at Worcester College, Oxford, from lunchtime on Thursday 30 March to late afternoon on Friday 31 March. A conference dinner and accommodation will be provided on Thursday night.

Prices

Full price ticket: £550 + VAT

Academic & charity rate: £350 + VAT

Discounts are available for employees of IFS corporate members. Please get in touch for more information.

Included in your delegate fee: Ensuite accommodation at Worcester College is provided on Thursday 30 March and delegates are invited to attend a drinks reception and formal conference dinner on that evening, as well as buffet lunches on both days. 

Day delegate rates: Please contact us if are interested in attending as a day delegate and do not require accommodation. In addition, we have a limited number of free day delegate places available for students, offered on a first come first served basis. Please email us to express your interest.

The conference theme and many of the topics covered draw heavily on work undertaken as part of the IFS-Deaton Review of Inequalities, funded by The Nuffield Foundation.