CEOs welcome: A very hot topic

As non-political educational charities, we did not comment on the political manifestos or policies but it is fair to say that taxation has been an important election topic for the political parties and the general public. Although we do not have a political view, the CIOT has provided 2024 General Election: Explainers (see www.tax.org.uk/2024-general-election-explainers). These are non-partisan explanations on the tax issues in the spotlight during the campaign and have been produced by our technical officers and members of the external relations team.

We are sure that regardless of the colour of the winning party, taxation will remain a very hot topic for the next government. Both the ATT and CIOT look forward to working with that new government in making taxation easier to operate and understand.

Those taking up membership of the ATT were joined by prize winners and guests at the ATT admissions ceremony held on 27 June. This year, the venue was113 Chancery Lane in London and a great time was had by over 200 attendees. July sees the publication of the results from the May examinations and we wish all our students good luck with their results – we are sure that many of them will be attending our next admission ceremonies and taking up full membership.

Whilst the ATT has now finished its successful round of conferences, this year involving a topical tax update by Barry Jefford and sessions by the ATT technical team, there are still lots of ways both old and new members can increase their CPD by attending our local branch events (see www.tax.org.uk/local-branches). There is also an online programme of Technical CPD brought you by the Branch Network (see www.tax.org.uk/branch-webinars). The CIOT Cambridge conference on 13-15 September is now available to book! We were pleased to see many of you at the annual CTA Address on 5 July (full coverage is on page XX) and our next AI Ethics webinar for members is on 17 September, online.

Whilst there is a full obituary on page XX, we wanted to mark the passing of Roy Jennings. Roy was a giant in the tax community and gave so much to the profession of which he was part for so long. The ATT and CIOT in particular benefited from his giving nature. He served on the Council of the Institute of Taxation, as it was then, from 1975 to 1995, was President from 1987 to 1988 and represented the Institute on the General Assembly of the Confederation Fiscal Europe. He was the driving force behind the establishment of the ATT, which was established on 30 August 1989. It is a measure of the wisdom of this decision that the ATT now has nearly 10,000 members. Roy was President of ATT from 1989 to 1992 and served on the Council through to 2000. To those who were fortunate enough to know him and all of us who benefited from his unwavering kindness and endeavours, he will be remembered with great admiration and fondness.