Economic and Social Research Council
Printable version E-mail this to a friend

Official launch of the Tax Administration Research Centre

The official launch of the Tax Administration Research Centre (TARC) is taking place today Tuesday 12 February at a reception being held at Church House Conference Centre in Westminster.

The centre is a joint partnership between the University of Exeter and the Institute of Fiscal Studies, and received funding of £2 million from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and Her Majesty's Treasury (HMT).

The aim of the centre is to support high quality research and related activities on tax administration, with a view to strengthening the theoretical and empirical understanding of the delivery and design of tax operations and policies.

The centre pursues a multidisciplinary research programme with a research team that includes economists, accountants, experimentalists and psychologists. It engages with tax administrations, the media and researchers to disseminate this information throughout the policy and academic world. TARC also has exceptionally strong international connections and is developing links with experts at home and abroad, whose visits to the centre provide a forum for sharing knowledge and collaborating on new ideas.

Director of the Centre, Gareth Myles said: "The new Centre will deliver an improved understanding of how to enhance tax policies and administrative practices. It will achieve this by undertaking research of the highest academic standards in partnership with the HMRC and HMT. The outcome will be improvements in customer experience, economic performance and social cohesion."

ESRC Chief Executive Paul Boyle said: "The Tax Centre is an important new investment for the ESRC. It is strongly aligned to one of our strategic priorities for economic growth and will help enable the development of robust government and private sector strategies to ensure the sustainable growth of the UK economy."

ESRC Press Office:

Notes for editors

  1. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK's largest organisation for funding research on economic and social issues. It supports independent, high quality research which has an impact on business, the public sector and the third sector. The ESRC's total budget for 2012/13 is £205 million. At any one time the ESRC supports over 4,000 researchers and postgraduate students in academic institutions and independent research institutes.
  2. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is Britain's leading independent microeconomic research institute. Our goal at the IFS is to promote effective economic and social policies by understanding better their impact on individuals, families, businesses and the government's finances. We seek to communicate our research, which is based on rigorous analysis, to a wide range of audiences, thereby maximising impact on policy and informing public debate.
    IFS is a registered charity and a company limited by guarantee.
    www.ifs.org.uk
  3. About the University of Exeter
    The Sunday Times University of the Year 2012-13, the University of Exeter is a Russell Group university and in the top one percent of institutions globally. It combines world-class research with very high levels of student satisfaction. Exeter has over 18,000 students and is ranked 7th in The Sunday Times University Guide, 10th in the UK in The Times Good University Guide 2012 and 10th in the Guardian University Guide. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) 90 per cent of the University's research was rated as being at internationally recognised levels, and 16 of its 31 subjects are ranked in the top 10, with 27 subjects ranked in the top 20.
    The University has invested strategically to deliver more than £350 million worth of new facilities across its campuses for 2012, including landmark new student services centres - the Forum in Exeter and The Exchange in Cornwall - and world-class new facilities for Biosciences, the Business School and the Environment and Sustainability Institute.
    www.exeter.ac.uk
  4. HMRC was established by Act of Parliament in 2005 following the merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.
    HMRC is a non-ministerial Department with responsibility for the administration of the tax and tax credit systems through a number of HM Commissioners (the Chief Executive, Tax Assurance Commissioner, four Directors General, Chief Finance Officer). HMRC reports to Parliament through its Treasury minister who also oversees its spending.
    www.hmrc.gov.uk

Facing the Future...find out more