Sir James Alan Harra, KCB (born July 1962)[1] is a British civil servant who has been First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs since October 2019, in succession to Sir Jonathan Thompson.

He read law at Queen's University, Belfast and then became an inspector of taxes with the Inland Revenue in 1984.

[6][7] He became Tax Assurance Commissioner and Director General Customer Strategy and Design in October 2016 and was appointed Second Permanent Secretary at HMRC in November 2017.

[9] In November 2017, Harra appeared on BBC's Panorama programme about VAT fraud.

[14][15] This article about a person involved in governance in the United Kingdom or its predecessor states is a stub.