HMRC's Three Legged Stool - Strategy, Service and Compliance

HMRC is to launch yet another restructuring drive, with the theoretical intent of putting the "customer" ("TAXPAYER" FFS!) at the heart of the restructured organisation.

The current four HMRC directorates will be streamlined into three distinct divisions:

From 1 October, the existing four directorates will be reorganised into three groups:

1. a new customer strategy and tax design group, which brings together customer strategy, tax policy, process design and tax assurance teams, led by Jim Harra, director general business tax;
2. an expanded customer service group, which includes the main operational teams, led by Ruth Owen, currently director general customer services;
3. a customer compliance group, which will tackle non-compliance and enforcement for all customer groups, including large businesses, led by Jennie Granger, current director general enforcement and compliance.

Central to the customer strategy and tax design group will be the inclusion of representatives from customer services reorganised. This group will include personal tax customer product and process staff, who will take up their new roles in October, while specialist personal tax teams with expertise in policy, technical, shares and valuation, will come on board by December 2016.

The fourth directorate, headed up by Nick Lodge, covering general benefits and credits will be assimilated into the other three core groups.

Where does Lodge end up, or does HMRC hope he falls on his sword?

HMRC director of corporate communications Stephen Hardwick is quoted by CCH Daily:

"As we have been evolving what we do, and where we do it, as part of this transformation, we have also kept our organisational structure under review, to ensure that it is fit for the future and that it supports our new digital and collaborative ways of working.

As a result, we have now decided to make some further changes to how we are structured. From October, we will be reorganising the directorates in our four existing lines of business into three new groups."

An HMRC spokesperson added:

"The way HMRC works is changing for the better. We are more determined than ever to deliver an outstanding service to our customers while clamping down on the minority of tax dodgers who try to cheat the system.

This announcement is about the next step in driving those commitments forward, modernising how we work.

There will also be no redundancies as a result of this restructure."

This restructuring appears to be driven by the need to make the organisation fit in with the Making Tax Digital process, surely it should be the other way around?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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