Senior Policy Adviser: Future Tax Design

At the Welsh Revenue Authority (WRA), we’re responsible for collecting and managing two devolved Welsh taxes; Land Transaction Tax and Landfill Disposals Tax, on behalf of the Welsh Government. The revenue we raise funds public services, like the NHS and schools, in communities across Wales.

We’re committed to helping deliver a fair tax system for Wales through what we call ‘Our Approach’ - a Welsh way of doing tax. By working collaboratively with representatives, partner organisations, taxpayers, and the public, we make sure taxes are collected efficiently and effectively.

We base everything we do on our Corporate Plan 2019 to 2022. This sets out our purpose, strategic objectives, and longer-term ambitions. We report on our work annually - see our latest annual report and accounts.

We’re a small and multi-skilled organisation of more than 70 staff, with talents, skills and experience spanning 14 different professions. We champion innovation, collaboration and shared decision-making. And we empower and entrust our people with high levels of responsibility and autonomy.

Find out more about what it’s like to work with us in our latest People Survey.

For further information, please visit gov.wales/wra

Due to increased need for our expertise in supporting Welsh Government’s Programme for Government, we’ve created a new role to focus on our future services – shaping the design of potential new tax and revenue services, such as a visitor levy, local rates of Land Transaction Tax and a land and property data platform for Wales.

As part of the WRA Tax Strategy & Policy Team, you’ll join a close-knit, high performing team of policy colleagues supporting our existing services, and spend much of your time with other colleagues across our different professions, including data, digital, customer insight, operations, communications and finance.

Drawing on – and building your own – experience of implementing and running end-to-end delivery systems, you’ll influence others to ensure policy intent and service delivery are effectively aligned. This will involve thinking about operational models – and the impact of policy choices upon them, innovative and user-centred digital solutions, spotting potential administrative and compliance challenges, and bringing people together to explore cross-cutting solutions and opportunities that could be extended across the Welsh public sector. You don’t need prior experience of the devolved tax landscape, but you’ll need experience of getting up to speed on complex policy areas in a government context.

To be successful in the role, you’ll need to have a drive for problem solving and resolving uncertainty, making connections between ideas and a desire to create excellent public services in challenging areas. This will be a role that involves both reading and drafting often complex information, as well as a lot of interaction with different people and teams, inside and outside the WRA. You’ll enjoy and be confident in doing both and be able to tailor your communication style accordingly. You will also manage your time to be able to switch between these two ways of working.

The WRA brings diverse professional skills and practical experience to develop tax design solutions. Working with colleagues in Welsh Government and across our professional disciplines (including data, digital, customer insight, operations, communications, finance, HR), you will be at the heart of tax design in Wales. You don’t need to be an expert in these areas, but you will enjoy working across professional boundaries, finding new ways to convey our collective insight to colleagues and stakeholders across Welsh Government and beyond.

Dave Matthews, Head of Tax Strategy and Policy

We will be holding a virtual information session for candidates on 15 June 2022 at 12 noon on Microsoft Teams. This will be an opportunity for you to find out more about the role.

If you would like to attend register here: Candidate Information Session - Senior Policy Adviser | tocyn.cymru (beta)

Strategic policy development

• Play a leading role in developing our approach to new Welsh devolved taxes and revenue services, working closely with internal and external stakeholders.
• Coordinate and shape our advice to and collaboration with Welsh Treasury colleagues on significant new areas of tax policy and design, such as the potential introduction of local rates of Land Transaction Tax and a Welsh visitor levy, and coordinate WRA thinking on service delivery.
• Lead policy input into the development of a property data platform for Wales, supporting opportunities to support both taxes and wider public services.
• Lead policy development and advice on updating the WRA’s underpinning legislation – the Tax Collection and Management (Wales) Act 2016 – to ensure that our functions and powers continue to reflect our wider purpose and objectives.
• Lead our advice and collaboration on the development of specific tax policy projects as set out in the Welsh Government’s tax policy work plan, including possible further changes to devolved taxes and the introduction of new taxes.
• Lead development of evidence-based policy, using data, customer insight and analysis to identify and address issues early, resolving complexity to ensure that devolved taxes operate as intended. Where necessary, the postholder will also advise wider Welsh Government and Ministers on changes to devolved tax legislation.
• Research international best practice to inform development of tax strategy and support the effective delivery of devolved taxes, working across the organisation to enable delivery of our corporate plan objectives.

Operational policy development

• Provide high quality and timely advice on the practical application of tax policy to resolve uncertainty and ensure that decisions are made and communicated in a way that is sound, clear and lawful.
• Identify and address issues arising from implementation of tax policy, leading on changes to our existing approach where necessary.
• Lead on the development and evaluation of WRA operational policy as our functions and role adapts over time.
• Lead on completion of equality impact assessments for relevant areas of responsibility, ensuring we understand the impacts of the strategies and policies we develop on our customers.
• Develop a working knowledge of devolved taxes, including Land Transaction Tax and Landfill Disposals Tax, to support wider policy development.

Building relationships

• Develop and maintain relationships with other relevant bodies involved in tax design and administration (e.g. HMRC, Revenue Scotland) and key stakeholders (Welsh Treasury, other government departments, local authorities, representative bodies), as well as wider external stakeholders.
• This post is likely to have some line management responsibilities and you will also contribute to the continuous development of the organisation, supporting corporate projects where appropriate.

We recruit using success profiles. Our success profiles guidance will help you in completing your application. 

In brief, this approach means: 

• we look for evidence of what you have done and what you can do. This means we look for the behaviours, strengths and ability needed to do the job 
• where necessary or relevant, we also consider experience and technical knowledge 
• this approach starts at application stage and continues throughout the recruitment process 
• we may only look for some things at certain stages. We’ll always be clear what we’re looking for and when 

You should highlight evidence from the table below during the recruitment process. You may also wish to refer to the main tasks mentioned above. 

The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this post.

Welsh desirable means that having Welsh language skills would be useful in this role, but it is not an assessment criteria so it won’t put you at any disadvantage during recruitment if you aren’t a Welsh speaker. We support all staff to learn or improve their Welsh language skills once they join us. 

As a civil service department, all our people have access to government assets. Different roles require different levels of national security vetting.

Our assessment process includes a blended interview, where we test you against the criteria above. Depending on the role, we may:

• test for strengths relevant to the behaviours
• ask you to complete an exercise, test, or presentation at interview stage
• ask if you have any requirements you would like us to be aware of

To apply for this role, please send us:

1. Your CV (no more than 2 pages of A4).
2. A personal statement (800 to 1,200 words) on how you meet the criteria.
3. Your Details form. This allows us to make sure our recruitment process remains fair. It will not be shared further than our HR team.

Send all 3 documents to recruitment@wra.gov.wales

To be fair to all, we do not accept:

• late applications
• incomplete or missing documents
• personal statements over 1,200 words

We're unable to discuss opportunities with recruitment agencies, please apply directly. 

We offer a wide range of benefits when you join the WRA, such as:

• a generous pension
• progression related pay
• 31 days holiday

Find out more about the benefits of working for us.

Find out more about our work by visiting our website. Or follow and engage with us on our Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube accounts.