The Telegraph reports that HMRC’s army of investigators (the taskforces) trawls through billions of items of data to catch out evaders before carrying out “intense bursts of activity” in a particular area, raking in £540m from sole traders and small companies who have underpaid tax in its five-year history.
The map, above, details when and where taskforces have already taken aim.
Low hanging fruit that may cost more (in terms of time and effort) to pick than it is really worth.
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Most would agree that deliberate tax evasion by business large or small is totally wrong but we need to know how much hmrc spent with this campaign in order to judge whether it was value for money for the taxpayer. HMRC's spin machine unsurprisingly hailed this success, but I wondered if they are equally proud of their failure to ensure a level playing field by allowing multinationals to strike cosy deals? Further to that, I wondered if they have ever considered whether the public's knowledge of such deals; the confusing legislation & guidance they issue; the lack of leadership and professional training within hmrc; and failure to provide a proper service such as picking up the phone in a timely manner or treating taxpayers with respect; helps or undermines compliance in the first place? i.e. if only they could get their act together, the evidence is more money would collected via voluntary compliance, allowing them to concentrate on complex tax avoidance and stop targeting small business as the easy option.
ReplyDeleteProper leadership with some direction is the only way out of the mess hmrc are in. They should be retaining experienced staff not sacking them. Maybe they also could treat staff with decency rather than like a bit of dirt? (what other organisation would think such counterproductive treatment is a clever idea???) Also it is long overdue that they move their large army of 'non-job' staff into productive work, such as far too many people 'working' in 'hr' people and too many layers of management. They cost the taxpayer a fortune in wages but add little value and are of little or no support to frontline staff who are just trying to provide a decent & honest service and do a good job for 'UK plc'.
ReplyDeleteCould not agree more. HMRC have some departments growing,yet the number of front line staff are decreasing. They are overstretched and there is no training to replace those leaving, despite assurances that there will be. HR bring in no yield, nor do they stop criminals exploiting the UK tax and excise systems.
DeleteHMRC management do not understand the value of experienced trained staff. They are under the mistaken belief that with information technology and work instructions anyone can come in off the street and conduct complex tax casework. Trained staff are now leaving daily , often unwillingly to take early retirement, join other government departments or tax consultants. So shortsighted.
ReplyDeletehmrc management at senior levels have literally no respect for the frontline staff doing real work, many of whom have dedicated years of their lives in service. They have no morals, little interest in the purpose of the department, are interested in themselves and their careers only, and do not understand those who simply want to serve the public.
DeleteThe fact is that you do not get promoted by being a front line tax worker -its seen as a thankless dead end , much better to be in pace setter change management , HR , quality or any other non job where you stay away from those grubby taxpayers and can brown nose management in endless meetings -the £540 million figure is utter bullshit , i see months pursuing hundreds of thousands of tax on "taskforce " cases which lead to nothing-limited liability companies folding with bugger all in the balance sheet .The emphasis on taskforce work is a smokescreen to cover the fact they havent the balls to take on multinationals on place of business, and most of Excom have an eye on the next industry sinecure when they leave.
ReplyDeleteI agree - the problem is that those in non-jobs, who are hidden away from the taxpayers, sound like the people telling those with experience of real work how to the job and all with the inevitable outcomes. Interesting that you say the £540 million figure is a lie. So basically they have wasted time & money raising assessments (nothing more than 'paper money' unless actual money can be collected at the end of the day) on limited companies with no money and no assets. It sounds like a sham designed for the PR spin machine in the hope nobody will scratch beneath the surface and notice. Disgraceful.
DeleteDon't you just love creative accounting, and don't forget the old adage - "There's lies, damn lies and then there's 9HMRC) statistics!
ReplyDeleteAs has been intimated, tax is only good if it is actually collected or in the bank.
Playing around with HMRC's own figures it would appear that some £623.4m has been "grabbed", now whether that is the amount assessed as due plus penalties and interest and "tax protected" is not known.
However, further playing around with their figures shows that £800m was invested from the 2015 budget towards "taskforces". Ignoring any previous figures, staff salary, training and vacancies left at home station, a simple calculation of £800m - £623.4m indicates a baseline deficit of £176.6m!
So, if these 350 are "investigators" they are not doing a very good job, even on low hanging fruit.
Whither goest the real criminals, not with a white van and a scaffolding sign, thats for sure. Perhaps the Muppets should be looking a bit closer at real "Badges of Wealth"?
Keep on trucking with Pacesetter crap and bullying, and endless meetings, you would struggle to come last in a 1 horse race. Oh, and while you are at it, how many of the task force numbers are made up from "Revenue" staff, or are most of them ex. 'Cussie' Investigators dragged off real criminal work to play around with civil work?
The trained hidden economy investigators on the current terms and conditions are being culled and the new staff HMRC is recruiting straight from college are all excited about their new jobs:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3870003
Reliable Humint told me that many of these gliterati, with lovely accounting type qualifications, soon cracked up under the strain and terms of the job. "I didn't join up for this, realise it was so tough, anti-social etc. etc.".
ReplyDelete...or maybe they tired of the bullying culture, encouraged & supported by many incompetent managers (perhaps as a method of hiding their feelings of inadequacy), and decided to pursue a career in the outside world where their hard work can be properly rewarded???
DeleteIf hmrc can't treat people decently and with a little respect, why do they expect to retain their best talent at the end of the day.
DeleteWhat you have to remember is that HMRC constantly state figures which is not actually cash collected -only 39 % on the last figures , the balance being losses prevented and accruals for future revenue benefit over 2-3 future years -oddly the accounting convention to reverse this is ignored , hence endless smoke and mirrors -the only way to earn recognition on tax is to leave for outside jobs or set up self employed .There is plenty of money in taskforce targets , but everybody knows the trick now on limited liability , assets in relatives names etc .
ReplyDeleteSome good points well made. It all seems very dodgy particularly the mention of 'future revenue benefit' which would appear simply subjective and an invitation to make the figures look ok. Seems that hmrc could do with looking at their debt collection operation and make more effort to quickly collect the cash before there is any transfer of title on assets etc if the figures are to have the smallest amount of credibility.
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