The former permanent secretary for tax, Dave Hartnett, topped the table for overseas travel with trips to Switzerland and Paris which totalled around £800, according to HMRC's most recent business expenses report for the period 1 July 2012 to 30 September 2012.
The department publishes quarterly figures showing how much each top executive spent on air fares, rail travel, taxis and accommodation and meals whilst carrying out HMRC's business.
HMRC's management team started to rein in its spending on overseas travel last year, according to the latest details of business expenses payments made to board members.
Analysis of the three previous quarters shows that Hartnett regularly travelled the furthest of all HMRC's board team members, most notably during the period immediately preceding his retirement.
From 1 April 2012 to 30 June 2012 he racked up £4,500 in airfares, most of which went on the expenses incurred during an inter-governmental meeting in Australia, which also saw a bill of £1,200 for accommodation, but Hartnett also went to Switzerland twice, and to the Netherlands, on speaking engagements.
The previous quarter, 1 January 2012 to 31 March 2012, Hartnett claimed £1,500 for travel to Argentina and £197 for a trip to Liechtenstein.
The same quarterly report details expenses claims for HMRC's new chief executive, Lin Homer, who spent around £1,000 on travel around the UK during her first three months, including £242 on an airfare to Cumbernauld.
The quarterly reports record even the smallest expenditure - Phil Pavitt, HMRC CIO and director general of change, claimed £4 in travel expenses for a meeting in London mid-way through last year, for example.
Most board expenses relate to activity within the UK, with Preston, Leicester, Liverpool and Manchester featuring regularly. However, Pavitt also claimed a £181 taxi fare during a visit to Oslo on a speaking engagement the following quarter. Between them, the 19 board members listed in the most recent report spent over £1,500 on taxi fares over the three months.
The reports note that John Spence, was an HMRC non executive director until the end of 2012, who is registered blind, and that therefore the expenses he claimed, which are typically between £100 and £500, are higher than that of the other NEDs.
