2018 People Survey - Engagement Falls

A loyal reader has just posted this:

"2018 People Survey Main Results:

Engagement figures DOWN in 7 out of 9 Sections

64% filled in survey...DOWN 3% from last year ever after all the bullying to fill it in.
Overall engagement figure is down 1%....senior management will be gutted about that...that's their headline figure.

The main dissatisfaction is with pay 22%.....Leadership 38%....and the useless learning and development 54%.

Jon Thompson has already come out with the usual waffle....."disapointing results...but great to see brilliant HMRC values....the Intranet comments section is already filling up.

No senior management or brown nosed corporate communications to be seen on the comments section....they will give it a few days....and then start the spin."

 Does anyone have a link to the actual results please?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC 101st Out of 107 In Staff Engagement

My thanks to the loyal reader who posted this comment about HMRC's ranking in the people survey:

"101st out of 107 in staff engagement, yes thats bloody success isnt it. 1 in 9 reported being bullied, 61% not investigated. 33% didnt do the survey because we knew what wad going to happen with it. Pay and conditions score little improvement. Its a whitewash, no other word for it. How do these people sleep at night. The department is in crisis, come brexit it will be in meltdown. Rearranging the Deckchairs on the Titanic. As Churchill said "success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm" says it all really."

Please can someone provide me with a link to the ranking, I can't see it in the Civil Service link I posted the other day?

Thanks


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Why Do You Evade Tax?

In a statement to The Mirror, HMRC confirmed it was seeking to interview both compliant and non-compliant people among Britain's 11,000 "High Net Worth customers."

HMRC said the research was part of an ongoing strategy to increase collection for the public and was focused on 'understanding the attitudes and behavioural triggers' of these people rather than gathering specific tax accounting intelligence.

Those asking the questions would be social researchers, not forensic accountants. Estimated cost of the survey up to £80K.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Fake Staff Survey Responses

My thanks to a loyal reader who has written to me about multiple staff survey responses being submitted by a certain manager in a certain HMRC department (the results are published on the HMRC intranet).

"...You see ***'s (redacted by Ken) group in **** was around 100 staff at that time.

At the close of the staff survey period the published response rate for ***'s group was 130 responses out of 100 people. i.e. 130%!!!!

Generally around 60 responses would be expected.

This is fully checkable as number of responses are published with the survey.

Unsurprisingly his groups scores on certain key questions were 10-15 points above the HMRC average.

The point is that apparently you can submit multiple returns on the survey (the system does not stop you), and many staff in ***'s team are fully aware he and a few close 'minions' submit multiple positive responses for his area and have been doing so for several years.

Unfortunately the past couple of years he has gone over quota a bit.....

It not who votes that counts. It's who xeroxes the ballot paper."

Are there no depths to which HMRC will sink?

Ironically, despite the manipulation, *** still managed to score 20%+ response rate on the bullying question (people who felt they were being bullied or had witnessed it) over his team of 100!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Rigs Staff Surveys - Latest Update

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted an update the other day as to the ongoing staff survey rigging that appears to be endemic within HMRC:

"2017 Staff Survey latest :We are now being "coached" on how to fill in the survey.....we are being told that if we are going to answer negatively to a question then there are 4 other questions we must look at before deciding...if we answer "yes" to any of these then the overall question becomes positive and therefore a "yes".....you couldn't make this shit up.This survey is "voluntary"...however each manager will be asked to submit how many of thier staff took part in it for "engagement" purposes.

I never filled in these forms but now because of these underhand tactics i will...just to stick it up them....they are a shower of bastards !!!"

Please feel free (if you are able) to share your experiences of the ongoing staff survey rigging in HMRC.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Rigs Staff Survey - By Threatening Office Closure

My thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me this wee note below:

"I just thought that your readers might be interested to know that at least one office in HMRC has found a way to improve the engagement results of the 2017 staff survey. 

Staff in one of the many offices ear marked to be closed in the next few years have recently been advised at team meetings that too many negative comments on the 2017 survey may result in their office being closed earlier than planned!"

Loyal readers are aware that HMRC has an "issue" with staff surveys, wrt lousy results and poor response rates. Indeed it has been noted before that certain managers try to manipulate staff into making positive comments.

However, to threaten the closure of an office is lower than disgusting!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

MTD Survey

Please spare a mo this Sunday to complete my Making Tax Digital for Business (MTDfB) survey https://t.co/WFXcFg4vSf

Ta very much 😇😆

— Elaine Clark (@cheapaccounting) March 5, 2017

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Rigs Staff Survey

In news that will not surprise any loyal reader of this site, The Sunday Herald reports that HMRC has rigged its staff survey.

HMRC is under fire for putting pressure on employees to score the organisation highly in its internal staff survey.

A manager at HMRC linked good marks to future investment at his office, while the head of the tax avoidance unit urged colleagues against using the survey as a “protest vote”.

Emails obtained by the Sunday Herald reveal managers have been encouraging staff to grade HMRC positively, in contrast to previous surveys.

A senior manager in Dundee emailed his colleagues last month:

“I really need your support to not only encourage colleagues to complete the survey but to also promote the reasons why completion and scoring highly are important.”

He also explicitly linked the results to future resources at the site:

“Senior leaders will use the results to judge how engaged we are and this can play a part when looking at investment in terms of resources and new work – selecting highly-engaged sites for new opportunities would suggest the greatest chance for success.”

Dave Richardson, the director of HMRC’s counter-avoidance directorate, also contacted staff last month:

“I know it can be tempting to use the Survey as a protest vote. But to be able to respond to your concerns, and ensure that your successes and commitment are recognised, it is most helpful to me in representing Counter-Avoidance if you use the range of scores, without over- or under-egging.

For instance, most people in Counter-Avoidance go the extra mile. But in last year's survey less than 30 per cent of people said that they were inspired to do their best in their job, or were motivated to help achieve the Department's objectives."

In another email, a staff member alleged that team leaders had been told to use chocolates as an inducement when employees filled out the survey.

A spokesperson for HMRC said:

"Workforce planning and our future locations are categorically not determined or even influenced by feedback from our People Survey. We want our staff to be completely open and honest in their responses and anything that suggests otherwise is wrong”.

Given that previous surveys have put HMRC at the bottom of the pile, the fact that they were rigged makes this even more pathetic!

If you are going to rig a vote, at least make sure you come out on top!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Debt Collectors Survey

A survey released by debt charity StepChange, looking into people experiences of debt collectors, reports that of the respondents who were contacted by HMRC, 28% said they were unfairly treated, while 41% said they were fairly treated.

Which contrasts to private companies thusly (and surprisingly) - of clients who had been contacted by payday and short term lenders, 28% said they had been treated unfairly. The organisations perceived to be least unfair were credit card companies – just 20% of clients said they had been treated unfairly, and high street banks – 21%.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Tell ABAB HMRC Survey

The administrative burdens advisory board (ABAB) has released the results of its “Tell ABAB” facility which received more than 2,000 responses from business owners and accountants.

ABAB is an independent board that seeks to bring a business perspective to HMRC’s work.

AccountingWEB have summarised the results.

Once and done

Communicating with HMRC remains the biggest bugbear. However, the report identified two initiatives HMRC implemented to ameliorate the poor service levels. First, is a change of service philosophy to something HMRC is calling “The once & done project”.

“[It] has been developed to deliver process changes that allow Call Handlers to deal with more the first time around, reducing the need for you to write to HMRC, for HMRC to write to you, and for HMRC to ‘hand off’ questions between its own staff.”

HMRC will now implement a “phone first” policy, too. Phone first will allow HMRC staff members to phone you for clarification or additional information regarding the correspondence subject.

Up to 2,000 respondents also indicated a very strong desire to access other, non-traditional channels of communication.

Making Tax Digital was offered as a remedy for HMRC’s communication woes.

“It brings together access to all key online services, guidance and information providing a joined-up experience for you, giving you the ability to perform a number of transactions with HMRC in a single place.”

HMRC is apparently trialling a clutch of new digital communications, including “Web chat” for those with SA queries, a “virtual assistant” for the online services helpdesk, and a move from paper to “secure digital messaging via your digital tax account”.

Agent online self-serve

AOSS, according to HMRC, will revolutionise the way agents deal with them. The service is currently being beta tested by a select group of 1,500 accountants. But, according to the report, there’s an “intention to extend this group during the remainder of 2015/16”.

Other results

In ABAB’s survey results, respondents identified several other categories of particular strain when dealing with HMRC:

• Personalisation: “You want your tax affairs to be all in one place and for HMRC ‘departments’ to be much more joined-up. There is also a need to only receive what is relevant to you targeted to your specific business/circumstances.”
• Digital: “Those of you who are online want to do more online and have suggested ways to make specific tasks easier.”
• HMRC attitude and approach to small businesses: “You want HMRC to better understand the day to day pressures you face running your small business and to have more empathy when dealing with you.”
• Policy & legislation: “You want Government policies and legislation to be modernised and simplified, recognising the needs of small business so to encourage innovation and growth.”
• Processes & systems: “You want clearer guidance and greater consistency across specific services such as VAT, CIS.”
• Payments & refunds: “You want the mechanisms and policies for payments and refunds to work better for you and your business.”
• General admin burdens: “You want to spend less time on tax administration and to have greater consistency across different taxes to reduce the burden in running your business.”
• Working with agents: “You want agents to be able to deal with HMRC on behalf of your business more easily.”

All these initiatives sound very jolly. The question is, will they work, and will they be properly implemented?

As ever, please feel free to share your views and opinions.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Comes Last in Civil Service People Survey

The 2015 Civil Service People Survey reveals that only 25% to HMRC staff believe that HMRC is “managed well”.

Additionally only 34% thought senior managers’ behaviour was consistent with the organisation’s values.Only 32% thought it was “safe to challenge the way things are done”, suggesting a climate far from conducive to whistle-blowing. Meanwhile, just 35% thought the board had a clear vision.

At 45% HMRC is the lowest-scoring government department when it comes to the “engagement” of its staff.

HMRC is quoted by the FT:

“With a 65 per cent response rate it is clear that more people in HMRC are sharing their views, but we recognise we still have work to do.

Over the last five years our Civil Service People Survey scores have generally improved on staff engagement, satisfaction with leadership, change management and training. We listen to the feedback of our workforce because we know there is more we can do.
Encouragingly, the 2015 survey showed positive feedback on the department’s vision for the future and the opportunities available for staff to develop their careers within HMRC.”

That means that 35% of HMRC staff couldn't be arsed to fill in the survey!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Staff Engagement 2015 - 45%

Congratulations to HMRC for coming almost bottom in the 2015 Civil Service People Survey wrt staff engagement as published 16 November (yes, I know I'm late with this!).

The median employee engagement index was 58%, HMRC scored 45% (only three other departments scored lower).

Bonuses all round then eh?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Attitudes To Tax Avoidance

Research conducted by HMRC indicates that large companies have stopped describing tax avoidance as acceptable.

That is the takeaway headline that HMRC are focusing on. However, more than two-thirds of companies say they are “always open to ways to legally reduce our tax payments”.

The proportion of the largest businesses that disagreed that “tax avoidance is acceptable” rose from 39% in 2013 to 56% in 2014.

“Viewed together, these changes suggest a trend among large businesses away from holding or voicing their opinion that tax avoidance is acceptable.”

That of course shouldn't be taken as a change in policy, merely a change in publicly stating policy.

As a matter of interest, some of the large businesses felt that HMRC had been more ‘aggressive’ and ‘rigid’ in the 12 months prior to participating in the study:

"Historically we have had a very good relationship with HMRC. In the last 12 months HMRC has become more aggressive, we've seen a drop in the level of trust that they are prepared to show towards us... where previously we have had quick resolutions, [now] what we are seeing is more and more requests for data and information but less and less action on the back of it."

Ironically for 10% of large businesses, the media coverage of other companies’ tax planning made them consider similar opportunities.


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Morale at Rock Bottom

Ashdown Group reports that research by Bloomsbury Professional recently found that morale is at rock bottom at the HMRC.

The research found that 45% of all HMRC staff feel that they are overworked, up from 35% a year ago. 

Over three-quarters (76%) said they do not feel they are well-managed. 

The majority (80%) of the staff feeling underpaid.

Happy Budget Day!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Abysmal

A survey conducted by the ICAEW has found that around 33% of accountants who responded are of the view that the service provided by HMRC has deteriorated over the least year.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said that HMRC staff were unable to do things correctly first time. Tax agents also said it took too long to answer the post or pick up the phone.

Paul Aplin, tax partner of AC Mole & Sons, is quoted in the FT:

“My worry is that poor telephone service will impact on people’s willingness to pay tax.

You can do more with less up to a point but I simply do not believe that the decline in service standards is unrelated to 10 years of cuts.”

Martin Bryars of Bryars & Co, described HMRC telephone service as “abysmal”. He said he had been automatically cut off after holding on for 30 minutes last Tuesday. The service was “very frustrating and costly in terms of time” and had worsened over the past two or three years.

HMRC said:

“We are working hard to further improve our handling of customer calls and have moved up to 1,500 extra people on to the phones during January as the self-assessment deadline approaches.”

HMRC believes that the future lies online; costs and errors will be reduced by moving services online (eg tax forms will be pre-populated with taxpayers' employment information).

This may improve some aspects of the communication flows between some taxpayers and HMRC. However, not all taxpayers are tax savvy nor do they all have access to the internet.

Robin Williamson of the Low Income Tax Reform Group said:

“The digital strategy is not going to succeed in the short to medium term unless digital speeds increase.” 

We shall see.

As loyal readers have noted in the past, if the underlying systems within HMRC (eg desktops and basic operating systems etc) are out of date and don't communicate with each other then there will continue to be problems.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Is Farking Awesome

Well done HMRC, after conducting a survey of 145 people (that's a statistically reliable size isn't it?), it has concluded that it's doing well.

The survey, entitled "HMRC Stakeholder Engagement Research 2014", was carried out by ICM Research Ltd (ICM). Its objective was to:

1. Explore how stakeholders view HMRC compared to previous years, in order to track the impact of its efforts to improve its reputation

2. Evaluate attitudes towards HMRC’s communication and engagement with stakeholders to inform future stakeholder communications

3. Identify what HMRC can do to improve and what its role should look like in the future.

The results indicated that:

"Favourability has increased since last year and is driven, in particular, by close working relationships between stakeholders and HMRC . Those who feel that HMRC listens, understands and responds to their views are significantly more likely to be favourable. Corporate stakeholders, who have more regular contact with HMRC, are generally more positively disposed towards the department....

..stakeholders regularly praise HMRC’s senior leadership team and feel that it is increasingly willing to listen to, and engage with, stakeholders, but cite customer service, the digitisation of services and a lack of dynamism as key weaknesses."

I'm gobsmacked!

Clearly everything is absolutely fine (based on a survey of 145 people).

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

OTS Employment Status Survey

In July the government commissioned the OTS in July to examine the dividing line between employment and self-employment and “whether it is drawn in the right place and in the right way”.

The Office of Tax Simplification is now seeking views on where the complexities lie in determining someone’s employment status for tax purposes. As such it has published a questionnaire, the deadline for which is 31 December 2014.

The OTS aims to publish its report at the end of February 2015, in time for Budget 2015.

It would be nice to think that this exercise will help simplify our massively complex tax system. However, I won't be holding my breath.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Engagement Index Falls

My thanks to a loyal reader who has sent me the following gem posted by Lin Homer, about the 2104 staff survey results, on HMRC's intranet.

To summarise, the results are shite!

HMRC is behind other departments, the engagement index has fallen, there is a fall in satisfaction with tools to do the job (RTI perchance?) and the response rate is a pathetic 53%. I understand that many answers are between -10 to -20% worse than the civil service as a whole.

Trying to put a brave face on it, Lin is softening the blow to her regime that the engagement index (44% in 2013) has fallen to 43% in 2014 by saying that things were worse in 2012.

You couldn't make this up if you tried.

Homer and HMRC are wallowing in their own feculence!

Here is the text of her message to staff:

"The headline results of HMRC’s 2014 People Survey are now available. I’m writing to let you know what they are and about the next steps for us all.

This year, our overall engagement score – which analyses how you feel about HMRC and your work – is 43 per cent.

This is a one per cent drop from last year, although our score is still two per cent higher than in 2012. The overall score for the Civil Service went up one per cent and we remain behind other departments, particularly big departments of comparable size.

I’m disappointed that our engagement score hasn’t improved this year, but I’m grateful to every one of the 35,117 of you who took the time to fill in the survey. The ten-point increase in our response rate to 53 per cent gives us a much fuller picture of how people across the Department are thinking and feeling.

ExCom now needs to examine that picture very carefully, and work out where we need to make changes. To help us do that, each line of business will be looking in depth at what they need to do differently and I would like you to get involved in the discussion. What needs changing in your team? What can your business do to help each of you feel engaged?

Your business/team level report will be available very soon, and will be shared with you by leaders in your lines of business.

There are some clear messages just from the headlines, for instance a drop in satisfaction with pay ( down five per cent) and with tools to do your job (down 9 per cent). Whilst there are some similar messages across the Civil Service, we need to understand what this means for us.

In January, everyone will have access to the Engagement Compass, which helps teams to understand and analyse their survey results, and think about what they can change at a local level. We will let you know when that’s ready.

There are some difficult messages in the survey results – and we need to understand them – but I am really glad to see that 81 per cent of you feel positive about your teams, and nearly 80 per cent of you want to stay with HMRC for at least the next year. I hope we can build on those findings, and continue to make improvements as we work together on Building our Future.

Thank you."

Why is this woman still in charge?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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HMRC Staff Survey

 

My thanks to a loyal reader for this insightful comment about HMRC's staff survey (the deadline for which has just passed):

"Lin Homer refers to sustainable cost savings. 

That remains to be seen. 

As HMRC shrinks and staff are obliged to do their own jobs and fill in for those that have taken early retirement, got out in disgust, or been "invited" to hit the road, we shall see. 

Morale is rock bottom, and it will be interesting to see what the People Survey (an internal survey of staff) has to say about engagement, trust, morale, etc. The deadline for completion was last night. 

Since senior management complacently follows the line that everything improves all the time (and beware if each member of staff does not do the same) no doubt the results will be massaged to fit their view. 

As we head for another round of staff assessments where 10% MUST be marked as falling in the bottom category, morale is bound to sink further. Any positive results are a tribute to what HMRC can do despite its senior management."

Would anyone care to predict what the results of this year's survey will show, and be spun to show?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC's Communications Problems

Bloomsbury has published its latest "HMRC customer satisfaction survey" and it is ironic that, despite Stephen Hardwick's (HMRC's Communication's Director) very vocal communication with the Telegraph the other day, taxpayers have expressed increasing frustrations with regard to trying to communicate with HMRC.


As per The Economic Voice, Bloomsbury notes on the plus side that the annual satisfaction survey showed an improvement in taxpayers’ perception of HMRC’s trustworthiness, honesty and integrity, as well as in its effectiveness in protecting personal and business information; ie 65% of accountants and 79% of SMEs surveyed regarded HMRC as trustworthy, up from just 61% and 74% in the previous year. The proportion of people saying that they feel HMRC acts with honesty and integrity has also increased (74% of accountants now believed HMRC acts honestly, up from 68% in 2012/13, while trust from taxpayers remained consistently high at 73% over the last two years).

However, there was a decrease in the perception that HMRC is better at collecting tax than repaying it. This year, only 41% of taxpayers and 36% of SMEs believed this to be the case, down from 59% and 41% respectively in 2010/11.

Additionally, the survey found that accountants, SMEs and individual taxpayers are growing increasingly dissatisfied with the ‘ease of getting in touch with HMRC’.

Only 70% of SMEs think HMRC was easy to contact, down from 80% in 2009/09, similarly, just 63% of individual taxpayers thought HMRC to be easily contactable, down from 75% in 2008/09.

The survey also found that fewer individual taxpayers, accountants and SMEs consider HMRC to be communicating effectively, and keeping them adequately informed of the progress of their query. A record low proportion of accountants, just 51%, felt that HMRC keep them informed, falling from 63% in 2008/09. Just 74% of SMEs feel HMRC keeps them adequately up-to-date, down from 82% in 2008/09.

Over to you Stephen!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance




HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"