HMRC are to be congratulated for their skills in finding new ways to waste our money.
The good people of HMRC have spent £1.5M, in a series of "brainstorming away days" for 450 of HMRC's "finest" brains, to create a slogan for HMRC.
Guess what earth shattering result they came up with?
"HMRC Ambition"
Don't like that very much?
Worried that it may not be worth £1.5M?
Well try these for size, these are the rejected ideas:
-a "pink and fluffy" logo spelling out "Thank You" to those who paid their taxes
-a steel-grey "Elite Enforcement" warning tax evaders they would be "hunted down".
"Hunted down"?
What have these people been smoking?
An HMRC spokesman said:
"If you improve the quality and leadership in the department it benefits everyone from people who claim tax credits to the Government."
I agree, unfortunately this is not an example of an improvement in quality or leadership.
Money well spent!
Tax does have to be taxing.
HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com) is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
Just for information, "pink & fluffy is not to be taken literally. It's a phrase widely used in the Department (mostly on the compliance side) which denotes anything not connected to what most of us see as the core purpose which is getting the money in. We all agree that "HMRC Ambition" and similar stuff is a complete pile of shite and a total waste of the money which we spend our days trying to assess/collect.
ReplyDeleteAnom
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
You and your colleagues have my sympathy.
Although I am a "mere" mid 40 year old, I am still old enough to remember when HMRC was a well run, efficient, professional and useful/helpful organisation.
The "Brown decade" has all but destroyed that ethos.
HMRC's Ambition (like that of many of its staff disillusioned with the never ending stream of distracting initiatives - Pacesetter being public enemy number one) is no more. We now have the HMRC Vision which was conceived (allegedly) for a mere six figure sum. I presume this is due to it having two fewer letters!
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