James (Jim) Alan Harra, (born July 1962) is a British civil servant who has been First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of
HM Revenue and Customs
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since October 2019, in succession to
Sir Jonathan Thompson.
Background
Harra's family are based at
Dollingstown in
County Down,
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. He was educated at
Donaghcloney
Donaghcloney or Donacloney ()[Tandragee
Tandragee () is a village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is built on a hillside overlooking the Cusher River, in the civil parish of Ballymore and the historic barony of Orior Lower. It had a population of 3,486 people in the 2011 Cen ...]
Junior High School and then
Portadown College
Portadown College is an academically selective, co-educational post-14 grammar school in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.
History
Preparatory Department
Portadown College Preparatory Department was founded in 1921 as the Carlet ...
. He read law at
Queen's University, Belfast
, mottoeng = For so much, what shall we give back?
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and then became an inspector of taxes with the
Inland Revenue
The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...
in 1984.
Career
In January 2009, Harra became Director of Corporation Tax and VAT, and then Director of Personal Tax Customer Operations in March 2011, and Director Personal Tax Operations in October 2011. He was Director-General for Business Tax from 2012 to 2016, when he succeeded
Edward Troup as
Tax Assurance Commissioner. He became Tax Assurance Commissioner and Director General Customer Strategy and Design in October 2016 and was appointed Second
Permanent Secretary at
HMRC
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in November 2017. He is also a member of the Board of the department.
In November 2017, Harra appeared on BBC's ''
Panorama'' programme about VAT fraud.
Harra is also HMRC's
LGB&T Champion.
Honours
Harra was appointed a
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the
2015 New Year Honours.
Offices held
References
Chief Executives of HM Revenue and Customs
Companions of the Order of the Bath
Living people
1962 births
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