Wednesday 19 October 2011

Good News! - HMRC Destined To Fail


Good news everyone, HMRC is now in the process of settling outstanding discrepancies (some going back to 2001).

Seemingly, over this period, HMRC has taken excess tax of £2.5BN and under collected £720M.

The result of the above discrepancies will mean that over 6M will receive a refund in the next few weeks of around £400.

Hoozah!

However, around 1.2M people will receive a bill for £600.

The discrepancies have come to light following HMRC's reconciliations of PAYE, as a result of the introduction of a new IT system.

HMRC note that these discrepancies that are now being highlighted are merely the end product of them clearing a backlog that had built up.

HMRC also note that things will now improve as the new system "beds in".

So are we to assume, and believe, that everything from now on will be fine?

Errmmm....sadly no!

For why?

Well, many reasons actually. However, to keep things simple, here are just two:

1 The new universal credit system is allegedly meant to be up and running by 2013. However, as already noted on this site, it will miss the deadline.

2 The HMRC capability review is now hitting the mass of managers below SCS. We can expect the upheavals emanating from that to cause a significant decline in TAXPAYER (I refuse to use the"C" word) service levels next year.

All in all, expect things to get worse rather than better.



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8 comments:

  1. "TAXPAYER ... services": does that mean you think there won't be a decline in service levels for those who deal with HMRC in a capacity other than that of a taxpayer such as agents, businesses dealing with VAT and PAYE (for which they act as tax collectors), tax credit claimants, etc.?

    It's a pedantic point, of course, but if you're going to be pedantic yourself about the umbrella term HMRC has chosen for all these people then you should perhaps come up with a better alternative.

    Stew G

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  2. No, I don't need to come up with a better term than "taxpayer".

    At the end of the day, it is the taxpayer (even if the taxpayer uses an agent or it is a company paying PAYE on behalf of a taxpayer etc) who suffers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Agree with you Ken, it has always been taxpayer until all of the pacesetter crap started. I refuse to call TP's the 'C' word, although i would use the other 'C' word to describe Jack.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Capability Review ? That shouldn't take long. Many of the "managers" know NOTHING WHATSOEVER about tax, or the work/people they are "managing". They were selected because their lack of knowledge enables them to box tick or discipline experts who take up valuable target-hitting time by looking too deeply at the work !! IT IS BAD SCIENCE-FICTION, NOT PROFESSIONAL EFFICIENCY !

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  5. Wish you would not use the "other" C word to describe Jack. The other C word can be a useful thing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. One of the most amazing things that I picked up watching Hartnett in front of the PAC was the fact that somehow (I suspect by design) he appears to be the only person at Commissioner level who knows anything about tax!! He admitted that Strathie knows nothing and neither does Lamey. He has got himself into the position of both making and reviewing the decisions. Others that review rely on him! That this was allowed to happen is absolutely amazing and reflects once more on the appalling management at the top of the organisation. If the roles were reversed and Hartnett was off sick I suspect Strathie would have had to buy in Private Sector expertise - what a shambles.

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  7. @08:28 It's true, very few of the newer managers know a thing about tax either they are call themselves 'pacesetter practitioners' It is frustrating to say the least when you point out that there is legislation to follow when they try to change how we work. HMRC is quite frankly a f*****g mess - should be an incapability review

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  8. HMRC at present is a shambles. The seniot management team within many of the individual departments have no concept of the role played by many of it's workforce.
    Instead they focus on the negatives and place far to much money and emphasis on rubbish like pacesetter. The ironic aspect to introduction of pacesetter is that it embodied much of the Kaizen principles used by Toyota.
    Unfortunately HMRC is full of idiots. Pacesetter fails to improve anything and instead has created barriers in assisting it's staff and this has had detrimental effect on taxpayer experience.

    ReplyDelete