CIOT welcomes new Director of Public Policy

Ellen Milner joined the Institute in April, having previously worked for HMRC. She replaces John Cullinane, who has retired. The Director of Public Policy oversees the Institute’s technical and professional standards work, as well as media and political relations.

Following her law degree, Ellen started at HMRC on its tax professional training programme and moved to complete her training in Large Business. She gained experience through working on investigations – from one-man bands to some of the UK’s largest household names.

Ellen got a taste for policy through a secondment working on the introduction of the bank levy, which influenced her upon qualification to take on a Corporation Tax Policy Adviser role in Whitehall. Her policy experience spanned the structure of domestic corporate tax – from setting the corporation tax rate to close companies, corporate loss reform and quarterly instalment payments. She undertook a significant stint leading on devolution on the Corporation Tax (Northern Ireland) Act 2015, and worked on cross-cutting issues, including some early work on Making Tax Digital, and capability building in Ukraine.

Several years, two referendums and a general election later, Ellen moved to the centre of HMRC as the Permanent Secretary’s Principal Private Secretary. She worked there for three years, gaining a real insight into the wider department.

Deciding that her heart was closer to tax, Ellen took up a role as a Customer Compliance Manager in Large Business London, working with banks and asset managers before moving sideways to lead Large Business London as the Deputy Director.

Ellen is looking forward to drawing on her broad experience in this pivotal role in making the UK tax system more effective.