HMRC's Barrow tax office (Furness House) was to have closed in 2010. However, HMRC has deferred the closure until 2011.
HMRC staff claim that the delay is due to next year's general election, and a reluctance by HMRC to pay costly redundancy costs during the recession.
Source North West Evening Mail.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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"HMRC claim [sic] that the delay is due to next year's general election, and a reluctance by HMRC to pay redundancy costs during the recession."
ReplyDeleteEh? Did you read the same article you linked to? I'd swear it says:
"Tax workers claim the move is due to next year’s general election and a reluctance by revenue chiefs to pay for costly redundancies during the recession."
A subtle but important difference, is it not?
Interesting that you complain about office closures and then when they decide not to close one it's "playing politics" (*). I don't suppose this apparent contradiction would have anything to do with your own politics, Ken? No, I'm sure you'll be equally indignant about everything that HMRC does after the election... ;)
(* - as an aside, there's a long-standing convention that the Civil Service delays decisions on things that are politically contentious - like office closures - until after elections to avoid distorting public opinion. Given that by long-standing I mean decades, however, this at least is not evidence of the recent politicisation of HMRC.)
I agree entirely with the above poster and feel this is a rare slip by the blog author.
ReplyDeleteQuite right, I didn't proof read this well.
ReplyDeletere my politics, I will be equally critical after the election; rest assured of that.
"I will be equally critical after the election; rest assured of that."
ReplyDeleteOverjoyed to hear it. I await the Cameron version of the blog's title photo! :)
Given up on Brown already?
ReplyDeleteWhy? Can you see him turning it around?
ReplyDelete12 years is more than long enough for any party to be in power. Like a PC that's running slow and needs to be reformatted and have it's software reinstalled, a change is needed to and is clearly coming. It's just a shame that the only party that can win is the Tories...
HMRC intranet yesterday stated that HMRC had closed 49 offices in the past tax year and intedns to close 120 more this year but this is less than they had planned due to financial issues.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the next election has anything to do with it as Tories and Lib Dems don't like Civil Service either The Tories were reported in Sunday papers this week that they plan to merge govt depts to save money and we all know what a disaster the merger to HMRC was even KMen Clarke said on BBC he wouldn't have merged IR and C&E.