Friday 21 May 2021

ICAEW Gives HMRC a Well Deserved Kicking

 

ICAEW members are reporting that poor performance is being experienced across almost all HMRC services and ICAEW has been pressing for greater transparency about the problems being experienced and for a clear recovery plan. The Tax Faculty outlines the problems that have been raised and the action it has taken.

Over the past 12 months ICAEW members have reported numerous service issues and delays across a range of HMRC services.

  • The main concern of members in practice is the withdrawal of priority access from the agent dedicated line (ADL). There are long wait times and reduced hours on other helplines and significant delays in processing registrations and repayment claims. ICAEW members have reported call waiting times of 40 mins to an hour on HMRC’s helplines and calls being cut off.
  • Other examples quoted by ICAEW members include taxpayers still waiting up to three months for Unique Taxpayer References (UTRs) to be issued for self assessment registrations, five months for VAT registrations to be completed, up to six months for research and development relief claims to be processed and more than six months for carry back of corporation tax losses to be actioned.

The current service levels not only increase the burdens and costs for taxpayers and HMRC but, as the UK moves out of the pandemic, could damage the recovery due to inhibiting new businesses from starting up and stifling the growth of existing businesses.

Throughout the pandemic, ICAEW has acknowledged the pressure on HMRC’s resources and its considerable achievements in delivering COVID-19 related support. HMRC acknowledges the poor service performance and attributes it to having had to reallocate staff to work on the COVID-19 support schemes and an unexpectedly high level of staff absence due to the pandemic, as well as EU exit work.

ICAEW appreciates the problems that HMRC has faced over the past year and stands ready to give what support it can to HMRC to bring forward a clear recovery plan. ICAEW has called for the restoration of priority access to the agent dedicated line for many months and representatives have attended two meetings specifically arranged to discuss this issue.

ICAEW has also pressed for an improvement to service standards at the bi-monthly meetings of the Representative Bodies Steering Group (RBSG) where Tax Faculty representatives have raised the problems encountered by members. Specific issues have also been raised directly with the relevant HMRC team and through the Issues Overview Group and the faculty has made the case for greater transparency by HMRC, with more information about delays and problems in the system being made publicly available.

ICAEW calls upon HMRC to publish a clear recovery plan and encourages HMRC to work more closely with the professional bodies to improve service levels so as to restore them to a sustainable level as soon as possible.

The Tax Faculty encourages all members to report service issues on the HMRC online agent forum as that supports ICAEW when escalating the issues with HMRC.


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9 comments:

  1. Will they find time to design and deliver a recovery plan with so many of their resources committed to covering up HMRC staff bullying and criminal behaviour? Unlikely.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For God's sake give it a rest.
      No resources are being committed to covering up criminal behaviour as there is no criminal behaviour.
      Of course,if you have evidence to the contrary you could always take it to the police.......oh sorry, I forgot, you don't do that do you?

      Delete
  2. @19.47 Yes, I was given charge of a budget of £19k that I was instructed to use to cover up bullying and criminal behaviour.

    Well, you started with the silliness

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Believe me, I speak from experience of taking legal action against HMRC (spoiled alert: they lost), the monetary amount they wasted was far in excess of 19k. Those responsible at HMRC should be held personally liable.

      They have outstanding matters that are not forgotten though, not least their attempts to pervert the course of justice - me and my family will not rest until this is dealt with - and their shabby cover up of Mrs Con's misconduct. Unacceptable behaviour from a public sector organisation, whatever the opinion of one brown nosing troll who makes mental health slurs as a means of discrediting those telling uncomfortable truths - a predictable MO used by the very worst kind at HMRC.

      Delete
    2. 1) If you took legal action against HMRC and won why have you spent years on here whining about it.

      2) Would their attempts to pervert the course of justice not have been acted upon by the person overseeing the initial legal action.

      3) @19.47 does not make any mental health slurs in his/her post. You should apologise.

      4) I see you're back to your old habit of naming people on here who can't defend themselves. Shameful behaviour.

      5) "Believe me" .....well, actually, I don't.

      Delete
    3. 3) above should of course refer to @17.19.
      Apologies.

      Delete
  3. "There is no criminal behaviour..." says a clearly gullible individual.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. On balance I'd rather be gullible than a paranoid fantasist.
      Of course,you could always report the criminal behaviour to the police, but you won't.
      Can't imagine why not.

      Delete
    2. And if there was criminal behavour, I would expect that a criminal investigation would take place.

      Unless investigators do not believe any criminality has taken place. Unless they arr all gullible too.

      And please publish details of the case you won against HMRC. I cannot see why you would not have done so. Its not as though there would be reporting restrictions stopping you.

      Delete