HMRC's "Sinister" Plot - The Creeping Politicisation of HMRC

As loyal readers know, I have for many years warned about the creeping politicisation of HMRC.

Now, at the eleventh hour, it seems that PCS has finally woken up to that threat (albeit from a union perspective). As per PCS:

"The most senior civil servants in HM Revenue and Customs have hatched a "deeply disturbing" politicised plot to destabilise our union, it has been revealed.

A leaked memo, written for HMRC's executive committee, outlines a plan to "marginalise" us because of our continuing opposition to cuts and closures.

Our general secretary Mark Serwotka has written to HMRC chief executive Lin Homer to say we believe it signals a "major and damaging change in industrial relations" and to call on her to publicly disown it."

Fair enough that the leadership of PCS are concerned about their influence and power being marginalised, like it or not unions are themselves political organisations with their own vested interests. However, I am surprised it has taken a leaked memo to wake them up to the fact that the government doesn't like unions/industrial action messing up its plans for changing the civil service.

Sorry to say it, but that has been the reality for decades. Has PCS been asleep for the last few years?

In fact many loyal readers have posted comments on this site, over the years, expressing "disappointment/frustration" with the way that PCS conducts itself and its "cosiness" to the management of HMRC.

The issue is not so much "management's" attempts to "marginalise" PCS, but the role that HMRC members of PCS want it to play in representing their interests.

I would like to hear what PCS members think about PCS's performance wrt representing their interests over the past few years. Additionally, if anyone has a copy of the memo please feel free to pass it on to me.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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RTI Scuttlebutt - Update

My thanks to the loyal reader who has updated me on the RTI cock up, that I wrote about a couple of days ago, involving the doubling of some employees' RTI salary records.

Seemingly the RTI year end has been processed twice by HMRC, thus doubling a large number of taxpayers' year end salary. HMRC have, apparently, realised that there has been a cock up and have stopped sending out the incorrect tax demands.

The loyal reader who told me about this says that HMRC have told him over the phone that it will take between 6-8 weeks to resolve cases, and that thousands of people (and many companies) have been affected.

I would be grateful to hear from anyone who has been affected by this cock up.

Additionally, I am at a loss to understand how a "real time" system can process the same data twice and double it up? This sounds to me more akin to a batch processing system, where the same data is fed through twice without being checked.

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 Email Addresses

My thanks to a loyal reader who emailed me a link to what appears to be a veritable smorgasbord of HMRC email addresses.

Seemingly it is also available, for the moment, via Google.


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"

RTI Scuttlebutt

My thanks to a loyal reader who has given me the heads up concerning some scuttlebutt about RTI.

Allegedly, HMRC has incorrectly doubled the salary (as per RTI records) of an unknown number of employees (in comparison to their actual salaries as per their P60's), and sent demands out to a number of taxpayers telling them that they have underpaid their tax.

My loyal reader also advises me that HMRC are aware of this, and have admitted as such over the phone to a number of his staff.

Please can someone advise if this is just a one off aberration, or if there are a number of people/companies affected by this?


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"

Failure Is Key To HMRC Strategy - Pimping Out Its Front End

Phil Pavitt, former CIO of HMRC, has put his head above the parapet and claimed that many government departments (including HMRC) are likely to fail in their quest to be truly digital because they are still reliant on legacy systems.

Pavitt, now CIO of Specsavers, was speaking at Nimbus Ninety's Ignite conference.

He is quoted by Computing:

"Where the UK government has played it wrong in many of its departments, is that it has pimped out its front-end, but it has not changed its legacy engines - that is not truly digital.

That will fundamentally catch them out as it has caught out many companies in the UK and Europe already.

People think digital is having an app - that's why people are getting it wrong and I know because I've worked for government for so many years, and for so many years they thought that the app was the front bit, but actually it's the whole experience."

Interesting, if you read carefully what he says, he is basically saying that despite working for government for so many years he was not able to influence the incorrect mindset of the government.

A sad legacy indeed!

Pavitt then went on to talk specifically about HMRC:

"It's one of the largest government bodies that's online anywhere in the world, but you try to do your taxes online - it's not the easiest thing is it?"

Adding that failure was a key part of any digital strategy - something he emphasised in his first presentation at HMRC:

"I said ‘we are going to make so many mistakes it is going to be painful, we are going to be on a Daily Mail front headline and indeed we were several times."

Warming to his theme he then had a well deserved pop at consultants:

"The consultants that sell that to you are lying to you, they are selling their goods. It's about the ease of the user, and the subtlety is small but significant.

Most organisations say that you have to spend a whole pile of money to do this, and I've personally never had that experience; I believe it's a fundamental lie from the IT supplier industry in that space.  

Digital is something that has to come from the legacy engine to the very front end and if your digital stack doesn't do that or you're told you can only do it with a huge investment, that's not true."

In a nut shell:

- HMRC has wasted a large amount of money

- HMRC will fail, because its legacy systems are crap

- Pavitt was ignored when he worked for HMRC

Hindsight is wonderful when you have left for the private sector!

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"

Scam Warning

Just a heads up about yet another email scam purporting to come from HMRC.

The following email arrived in my mailbox this morning, and had a file attached that the scammer wanted me to download.

Under no circumstances open/download any files, as they most likely contain viruses/trojans.

HMRC never contact people in this manner, all such emails are fakes.

"HM Revenue Verification

We at HM Revenue via check we need to continuously improve our services.  

Please take a few minutes to verify your details.

Please download and fill carefully Atash file.

All data will be collected by the law online privacy policy in accordance with HM Revenue & Customs.

Verification takes about three minutes to complete.

HM Revenue Verification - Team of Security Support 
Birmingham Stamp Office
9th Floor City Centre House 
30 Union Street 
Birmingham 
B2 4AR"

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"