Shambles

My sympathies to a loyal reader whose company has been trying for 3 years to obtain a CIS refund from HMRC without any success.

I understand that their client submitted the P35 to HMRC some 3 years ago, the HMRC office dealing with it at the time was Liverpool Regian House.

The office closed and the paperwork went to Bootle.

The HMRC staff member who took up the case at Bootle was in fact the same person who handled it at Regian House. However, despite having signed a letter with a Regian House address, she denied ever having dealt with it.

Two further P35's were submitted, in the meantime Bootle closed and the paperwork went on a merry journey to Longbenton.

Various other documents have been requested eg; copy bank statements twice, contractors CIS number, monthly records etc.

As time elapsed, various contractors involved have gone bust.

As things stand now, Longbenton have told my loyal reader's company that HMRC will not issue ANOTHER refund for 2010/11 unless all documents are forwarded. This is of course despite the fact that earlier years have yet to be dealt with.

My loyal reader's company has written to Osborne about this but, oddly enough, have not received a reply.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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

My thanks to a loyal reader for alerting us to the this rather interesting piece of information.

"To add to the mix they are recruiting a new Head of Chief Executives Private Office (G6) and Private Secretary to the Chief Executive (G7) - both posts are currently filled by staff who came across from DWP when DLS got the job. So why are they advertising the posts again? Could it be that all three are transferring?"

The comment was made in relation to my article about Lesley Strathie's soon to be announced departure for pastures "new" in a civil service position where she will "champion the improvement of front line services across the Civil Service, and lead the development of the profession across government".

Clearly her two loyal retainers are leaving with her.

Anyhoo, with such a change at the top, this is as good a time as any to muse a while as to how we got to where we are now, and why the Grande Dame has failed (even though her "new" role will be used as a cover by the politicians to avoid the use of the word "failure").

by happen-stance a loyal reader reminded me about an article that appeared in the Guardian in February 2010, which covered Lesley Strathie's response to the damning review from the Cabinet Office (noting the changes that Excom had already made to improve processes and structures within the organisation - remember this was written in February 2010).

The Cabinet Office review was based on the results of the second people survey in 2009 (2010's results were in fact much worse). As can be seen from the article, Strathie's strategy was to "harness" the enthusiasm and talent of local management as a driver for change.

"No less than one would expect, of course, and a fair recognition that the right efforts have been made by those who will further drive her vision going forward. But, as any change expert will support, the main barriers to implementing change tend to be not the visionaries at the top of the organisation, nor the 'workers' as a complete group but those who see change as a threat to their career ambitions or a challenge to a comfortable status quo.

The wrong job, the wrong way, for too long

Staff within HMRC are well known for their tenacity and passion to do a great job. However, despite all the change that the organisation has undergone over the last few years, many still feel that they have been doing the wrong job, the wrong way, for too long. The key to successful change is usually to be found in engaging key operational staff, then motivating them to drive the whole process forward quickly and effectively.

This in turn requires a clear view, not just of the strategic goals but also a comprehensively-thought-through model for the entire new organisation, which encompasses vision, strategic performance measures, organisational structures, new projects and business-as-usual activities, together with the right combination of skills, competencies and behaviours needed by all staff.

More important than any of these areas individually is the need to demonstrate clear alignment between all of them. Research shows that organisations that do not seek this rarely achieve their performance goals; whereas those that do, often achieve 200%+ of their targets.

As Strathie recognised in her comments, top-down and bottom-up alignment are vital to the future success of the organisation.

If HMRC staff understand the organisation's goals at strategic and operational level, they will also understand how their own job contributes to those goals, and they are likely to be well-motivated and strive even harder to achieve their own targets.

The Cabinet Office review stated that at least one layer of management remains more likely to be focused on building the profile of their own area (and themselves) than looking out across the silos for the good of the department as a whole.

This is unlikely to change until they feel that their advancement is clearly linked to HMRC's overall success. Strathie's comments suggest that this will be one of the first areas to which she will turn her attention.

The answer for HMRC lies in governance, leadership and culture – harnessing the passion and work ethic of the majority of staff and persuading or redeploying those who see no need for change. The kind of detailed alignment model I mentioned earlier is at the heart of such a programme – but time to implement it fully is limited, given the proximity of the General Election which tends to change everyone's priorities."

One and a half years on, with worsening engagement scores, poor performance and Strathie's departure whilst still on sick leave, what went wrong with that strategy?

The reality of harnessing management enthusiasm and talent requires there to be enthusiasm and talent at management level, sadly this does not exist in bucket loads at that level in HMRC (as has been noted many times on this site, and as Excom are now realising).

Excom assumed they had the talent from SO and above to understand the strategy, they didn't. The recent capability reviews now show in black and white that HMRC is starved of talent at this level.

Why is HMRC starved of talent at this level?

Go back in time to when Gordon Brown was Chancellor, and when he was looking for efficiency savings.

The Labour government of the day moved swathes of the Civil Service to the provinces (oddly enough Labour heartlands!).

Many experienced HMRC managers opted to take the very generous redundancy packages, rather than move to the provinces. The result being an expanded set of regional offices with no managerial competencies.

To add to the mix, the merger of the Inland Revenue and Customs resulted in chaos; as managers with no experience of tax/customs were put in charge of people without understanding he reality of their day to day jobs (the buzz word was "pure management", a tax manager could manage a customs department and vice versa).

Promotion through "learning the ropes" disappeared, especially in Personal Tax due to the lack of experienced managerial talent. Inexperienced managers suddenly had to recruit and backfill (replace leaving managers), without understanding business principles or any oversight of their decisions.

This has resulted in personal fiefdoms being created where sycophantic jobsworths are in control (see the comments made on this site over the years by HMRC staff). Pacesetter was used/manipulated by the management dross to fortify their fiefdoms. Excom have belatedly realised that Pacesetter has been manipulated, but will not fully abandon it. Instead local management are being by-passed in an attempt by Excom to see reality.

Whilst it does not take that long to inflict damage referred to above on an organisation, rectifying it will take a very long time and will not be for the faint-hearted.

HMRC have committed to their political masters that the results of the staff survey in 2012 (due to be published in Q1 2013) will be significantly better than the current appalling results.

The sad reality facing HMRC is that removing the deadwood of underperforming management will take longer than a year, and positive effects on staff morale/efficiencies/tax take etc etc will not be evident by the 2013 deadline.

HMRC now face the very real risk of being declared "unfit for purpose".

Tax does have to be taxing.

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To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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Plus Ca Change - Off With The Rose Coloured Specs

My thanks to a loyal reader who advises me that HMRC plans to address the issues wrt poor management, before the next HMRC staff survey, are not going well.

The issue, it seems, is not that local management do not take the new leadership values seriously, but that many of the SMT/SLTs are over promoted and under talented.

The Directorate are beginning to discover that the problem is worse than they realised.

Loyal HMRC readers are asked to look out for personnel changes at their local centres (specifically within personal tax), as this will identify where the recent review of G6/G7's has found problems.

HMRC's fate rests on the forthcoming staff survey, and the Directorate knows that.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
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Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Something For The Weekend - Hail Hail Thane of Cawdor III

Following on from my recent article about "Jack" Hartnett and the demise of the Grande Dame, I have been pondering how the government will remove her (whilst she is still on sick leave) without admitting that she has been removed from office for failure.

The answer is in fact staring us all in the face, and is in the public domain.

Lesley Strathie is currently the cross-government Head of the Operational Delivery Profession.

Evidently running HMRC is not challenging or time consuming enough!

The Grande Dame's role as the Head of Profession is to champion the improvement of front line services across the Civil Service, and to lead the development of the profession across government.

An organogram of her role can be found on this link.

Given that she already has a role set up outside of HMRC it will be but a simple matter to "beef up the role" a little, and formally transfer her across (doubtless at an inflated salary) without ever admitting that she has been fired or removed from office for failure.

In short, in order to avoid the massive embarrassment of admitting failure, it looks as though the government will reward her for failure.

It is of course ironic that during a time of cuts and austerity the taxpayers will be asked to fund another meaningless "new" quango, run by a failure. However, it seems that our political leaders "enjoy" being "ironic"!

The above is of course mere speculation on my part.

Several questions now spring to mind, if my speculation is correct:

1 When will our political "elite" bother to tell us about this move?

2 How much will the Grande Dame be paid in her new role?

3 Will she be given a "redundancy" payment from HMRC?

4 How much will the new quango cost the taxpayer?

5 Is this a "real" job, or merely a means to avoid publicly admitting that she and HMRC have failed?

6 What is the mission of the "new" quango?

7 Does the "new" quango have a hope in hell of succeeding? (answer: "No")

8 Who else is for the chop, and at what cost to the taxpayer?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Survey

Taxation are running an online survey asking:

How practical is dealing digitally with HMRC?

I suggest you pop over and give your vote, as they have only had 15 as at the time of writing!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

WTF!

My thanks to loyal reader Tony Sutton, who alerted me to an article he wrote for Deaf4Life about the problems he had trying to get a claim pack from HMRC yesterday.

Here is the article in full:

"Right, this is the actual event of what has happened today (Monday 22nd August 2010) of my trip to the HMRC Office in Norwich which ended with almost bad experience for me.

I needed to make a claim on the HMRC website, but at the moment, it's not available to do it online as the site says "These online services are still temporarily closed".

And the website says that I can pick up the paperwork at either HMRC Enquiry Centre or Jobcentre Plus Office.

After looking up the address and mapping the route on Google Maps, I decided to go to the Jobcentre Plus Office as the office was the most closest to walk from work.

Lunchtime came, so I head over to Jobcentre Plus Office and asked one of the guy using paper & pen to see if they have the paperwork/pack. He said they do not have anything I needed and advised me to use the telephone service. It took him about 2 or 3 seconds before he realised I cannot do that. Then he went off & spoke to someone else. He came back and advised me to go to the HMRC Enquiry Centre. I thanked him for his help and left the building.

Walked over to the HMRC Enquiry Centre and was greeted by a member of staff. Again, using paper & pen, I asked for the paperwork/pack. Once again, she told me to use the telephone service. Only that she did not realise and I had to point out that I am deaf and cannot use it. All of sudden, she was a bit panicky, didn’t know what to say. She told me to wait while she went into the manager's office to have a chat.

She came back and said that I could contact the office using textphone. I told her I did not have one at home or at work. Then she said I would have to make an appointment to see someone just to get the pack. Huh? She invited me to her desk and she looked at the calendar to try to find a free date for me. All different dates were offered, I'm busy on these dates.

During that time, the other member of staff led other people to the desk where I was sitting down and they looked fed up because we were communicating by paper & pen. I thought it were rude for the staff to put their customers next to me. Where's my privacy?

At this time, the manager came over and they both discussed what other options are. They told me to come back in a few hours time and they can do an appointment for me on the same day. No I cannot was my reply, because I have to go back to work.

All I wanted to do is to collect the pack and go back to work. That's all.

But no, I have to see someone just to get the pack. And that I need to show them 2 forms of ID - i.e. my driving licence and a passport. Nowhere on their website states that I need them to pick up the pack. Hum ho...

All of sudden, the manager/the lady (can't remember who said first) said they have a textphone in one of their office that I could use to call HMRC to get the pack posted to me. What? After all of this faffing about which lasted 10 minutes or so, they say it now? Why not say that at the first place?

They told me to wait in the other room. On the corner of my eye, I can see them rushing around like headless chicken, trying to figure out how to get the textphone equipment to be set up & work. I guess they rarely take it out...

The manager asked for my NI number and I gave him my NI card. While waiting, it dawned on me... why did the staff ask me for 2 forms of IDs just to get the pack, when I can get the pack over the phone (or even online when it's available) without them asking me for any forms of IDs? Do you see the flaw in this?

Anyway, after a while of wait, they lead me to the other room where there's a textphone and a keyboard attached to it. She read the user guide carefully (it has words and picture showing what to do). She followed the guide but somehow the text phone did not work. She tried again but still not working.

I looked at the guide and found that she was doing it wrong. I pointed it out to her (the photo showed very clearly how, but she didn’t follow that). To her credit, she quickly corrected it and it worked this time.

It rang. It connected to Text Relay. Then it connected to the number that she dialled. It went through the options. I picked the option I wanted to use. And it put me on hold. Knowing what HMRC is like, I knew it will be a long hold. And we waited.

During that time, the manager kept coming back and checking up on us, seeing if we've made any progress with the phone call. But we were still on hold.

And holding.... holding.... holding... holding.... holding for a long time.

The manager came back for the final time and asked me some questions on paper and I answered his questions. He decided that the phone call is not needed. He asked for my DOB, my address and my employment details. I provided them to him.

And I got the pack.

Finally.

I was happy that I got the pack finally, but at the same time, I was thinking - why did I have to go through all of that? It has left me very tired, very frustrated and annoyed that I have wasted a lot of time doing that when it can be easily resolved right at the start. Overall, I think this has taken me about 50 minutes from the start to the finish.

I finally walked back to work and it was almost 2 hours (20 mins round walking trip) since I left for my lunch break when it could have been easily resolved within 30 - 40 minutes!

I feel I was lucky that I was able to do this as I was able to communicate with them via paper & pen & using English language, but what about other Deaf people who are very strong BSL and is unable to do a proper English structure to communicate with them - will they be able to do this and have the issue resolved like me? My honest answer - I don't think so. I fear they will just say no and let them go on their way, which sadly does happen now and then.

Yes, they did provide me with a textphone, but please do it at the start without having for me to go through all of this faffing around. Their website also needs to be very clear that I need to bring some sort of other documents before I turn up.

To end this, I'd like to say a big thank you to the HMRC staff in Norwich (if you're reading this) - to the manager and the lady who sat down with me when we were making the phone call. Thank you for understanding and for being patient with me.

Anyway, that's my write up of my trip to the HMRC Office in Norwich and my experience with them. Tax does have to be taxing."

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To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Delays III - Run Out of Paper

Further to the farce of HMRC running out of paper, thus delaying the despatch of some July SA statements, HMRC recently provided the ICAEW Tax Faculty with an update.

Quote:

"In our previous briefing … we said that due to the higher than anticipated number of statements to be issued we would be unable to issue paper Self Assessment tax statements to all customers in the normal July period.

The majority of the statements were issued on time.

We are issuing the remainder now and they should all be out within the next fortnight.

If your client has been asked to make a second payment on account, this should normally be paid by 31 July. If they receive their statement in August they should still pay the tax due as soon as possible. However they will only be asked to pay interest on the tax due on the second payment on account if it is still not paid by 27 September.

Further information can be found on the HMRC website www.hmrc.gov.uk/news/delay-sa-statements.htm"

It seems that the delayed statements and apolgies (anyone hazard a guess as to the costs of this cock up to the taxpayer?) are coming through, albeit it slowly, one comment on the ICAEW states:

"Just had another statement arrive - dated 3.7.11, with apology sheet, arrived 17.8.11. No evidence of it being mis-directed by Royal Mail."

Anyone know why there was insufficient paper, given that the number of statements to be sent out presumably would have been known?

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Something For The Weekend - Hail Hail Thane of Cawdor II

It is clear that the Grande Dame is on her way out.

She currently wears the crown, and the pretender to the throne is "Jack" Hartnett.

However, I have a question for you all to ponder:

Is "Jack" the Thane of Cawdor (in which case who is Banquo?),



or is "Jack" Richard?



The scene is set, now let us enjoy the play!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Something For The Weekend - Hail Hail Thane of Cawdor

As the weekend makes a very welcome appearance over the horizon of a particularly long and tedious week, what do you make of the gossip about Dave "Jack" Hartnett being lined up to takeover from The Grande Dame?

Could it be that his public promise to HMRC staff the other day, about what will happen to staff survey results, was a sign of a power shift?

Could it be that the Grande Dame's protracted sick leave will be used as a diversion to quietly shuffle her off with a massive payoff?

What do you, my loyal readers, think/know is going on behind the scenes?

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Hartnett Promises Re Staff Survey

My thanks to a loyal reader who alerted me to what Dave Hartnett has publicly promised HMRC staff what HMRC will do with the results of the forthcoming staff survey.

"Everything is fine in HMRC, it must be, you can't move for propaganda telling the staff it is so.

Keep repeating the same story often enough and even the unbelievable appears true.

(only partially quoted) Dave Hartnett said yesterday

'it's important to give you some public commitments, on behalf of Excom, ahead of the 2011 survey, which opens in just over a month's time.'

Phew, that must have been a too close for comfort call, when to print that?

BTW HMRC will

'Use the information you give us to improve working life here in the department.'!

BTW HMRC won't

'Use the survey result when deciding office closures or team moves.'!

'Use the data for anything other than improving working life here in HMRC.'!

Message to managers

'Excom colleagues and I will hold ourselves and our management teams accountable for the following commitments. Any departure from them will not be tolerated by me or any other senior leader within HMRC.

Furthermore I will actively support the proper investigation of any evidence of transgressions in line with HMRC's procedures governing such matters.

It is vital that we all behave in line with these common sense principles, and that we all agree to work together in this way without exception and in a way that is entirely consistent with our published leadership behaviours'!

HMRC will not

'Feed back on the data in any inappropriate way.'!

I have no hesitation in praising this new approach, has the top finally woken up to the "fiefdoms" below them?"

The fact that Hartnett has been forced to make such a public statement indicates that Excom are worried that they have lost the "faith" of their staff (no surprises there) and, more interestingly, that they do not trust their managers not to misuse the results.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
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TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Beyond Pathetic

Freelance UK reports that the Forum of Private Business (FPB) is a "tad underwhelmed" by HMRC's many faults.

The FPB is of the view that the tax system is inefficient because it is "bogged down in bureaucracy" partly a result of HMRC's "complex, unwieldy" procedures for online taxpayers.

The FPB said that the tax system was no longer "fit for purpose".

Re HMRC's failure to pick up 43% of the calls it received (2008-09), the FPB said that it was "beyond pathetic."

This is not a state of affairs that can continue. Something is going to "break"; whether it is the staff (who are taxpayers), the taxpayers (who are not staff), the politicians or indeed Excomm.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Strike

It seems that HMRC's IT operations may be disrupted by a possible strike of 750 Fujitsu employees.

HMRC outsource various IT operations to Fujitsu (eg IT support to HMRC's systems and processing tax credit forms) The Fujitsu employees have been balloted for a strike over "insufficient" pay rises.

In the event strike action does occur, it is scheduled for between September/October.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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A Public Spanking

Helen Adams of BDO recently wrote about HMRC's powers to publicly "spank" (name and shame) taxpayers who deliberately evade tax after 1 April 2010 and who are charged a tax-geared penalty as a result.

HMRC can publish the following information, unless doing so would prejudice an ongoing criminal investigation or cause serious risk to the taxpayer’s safety:

- The taxpayer’s name (including a trading name or pseudonym);
- The taxpayer’s address or registered office address;
- The nature of the taxpayer’s business;
- The amount of the penalties charged and the tax involved;
- The periods when the errors arose; and
- Any other information that HMRC considers necessary in order to make the taxpayer’s identity clear.

Taxpayers cannot appeal against the decision to publish their details, although they can appeal against the imposition and level of the penalty.

However, HMRC will not publish a taxpayer’s details if the tax they deliberately evaded is less than £25K or if the taxpayer voluntarily tells HMRC about the errors before HMRC begin a compliance check.

You have been warned!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

CIOT Response To HMRC

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) and the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) have published a response to HMRC's consultation document: 'Establishing the future relationship between the tax agent community and HM Revenue & Customs (Tax Agent Strategy)'.

Here are a few extracts:

"The overriding issue to manifest itself is that the condoc shows insufficient understanding of how agents work, of the various types of firms they may work for and of the problems they face in coping with a system which is creaking at the edges...

Successful delivery of the TAS depends on winning the hearts and minds of the tax community and HMRC should take deliberate steps to build trust....

There is a widespread cynicism about HMRC’s main drivers for change, which we have been informed are not about saving costs...HMRC need to work harder at explaining their strategy and resist the traditional approach of assertion..

It is disappointing that the consultation document omitted any analysis of the systems in place in other countries..."

Here is the "killer" quote:

"...some of our members voluntarily informed us that they are keen to be able to do HMRC’s work, especially as they say this would reduce the need to deal with inadequately trained HMRC staff and enable them to make adjustments once only."

It shall be interesting to see if HMRC takes these comments on board.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Civil Disorder

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC has today announced a single helpline number – 0845 366 1207 – to help businesses and individuals adversely affected by the recent civil disorder.

HMRC is determined to do all it can to help, and may be able to do this in a variety of ways.

The dedicated Civil Disorder helpline is available to provide comprehensive advice and deal sympathetically with problems currently faced by businesses and individuals. In particular, HMRC will:

* agree payment schedules with those who are unable to pay their tax bills due to short-term financial difficulties; and

* discuss practical solutions where businesses and individuals cannot meet their other obligations to HMRC – for instance, their records have been lost or destroyed in the disturbances.

In these circumstances, and whenever possible, HMRC will review any penalties imposed and withhold additional surcharges that would normally be triggered by missed deadlines.

In short, if you want to talk about how the disorder has affected you in relation to the tax system (including tax credits), please contact HMRC – we are here to help. There are a range of existing reliefs available and HMRC’s trained advisors will be happy to help.

Notes to editors

HMRC’s Civil Disorder helpline will be available from 8.00am to 8.00pm, seven days a week.

2. To help deal with your query more efficiently, callers should have the relevant taxpayer reference number to hand e.g. Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) for Self Assessment customers, or VAT number for VAT-registered businesses.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Online Filing

Scottish Business Insider Group reports that HMRC has outlined its plans to move the business tax system to a fully online service by April 2013.

Two consultation documents were published this week, re moving towards a web-only VAT and tax system for business.

- Digital by Default This consultation considers the next steps in making HMRC’s proposed Registration Wizard the digital by default channel to get set up for the main direct business taxes (Corporation Tax, Income Tax Self Assessment/Class 2 NICs, PAYE). It is part of the 'One Click' programme of work in HMRC to accelerate the move to delivery of services through online channels.

- VAT: consultation on the next steps for moving VAT online This consultation covers changes to the operation of VAT to move further transactions online, and the assistance into digital that will support those moves.

HMRC is attempting to save £235M by these initiatives.

Compulsory online VAT returns will be extended to businesses with a turnover of under £100K by April 2012.

Registering online for other taxes when starting a business will become the default option for all entrepreneurs by April 2013.

Neil Whyte, tax partner with PKF, is quoted:

"Although doing all your tax paperwork online looks set to become the default option, it should never become the only option.

Pushing all tax communication online may save money for HMRC but making it mandatory would spark opposition from those who worry about data security hardly a strong point for the tax authorities in recent years."

Quite!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

LOL:)

I can't help but chuckle over this article in the Guardian.

"Police officers who allegedly took payments from newspapers and private investigators could face hefty fines and criminal prosecution after it emerged HM Revenue & Customs is reopening personal tax records to check if payments were fully disclosed.

It is understood HMRC has already begun probing self-assessment forms from previous years in the wake of new information obtained amid the phone-hacking revelations."

Quite right too, especially if it also puts off the police from taking bribes in the future from journalists for leaking information about people and investigations!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Post Haste

The ICAEW Tax Facility has published an update on what HMRC is doing to improve its snail mail handling.

As loyal readers of this site know, snail mail delays are one of the gripes of both HMRC staff and non HMRC staff alike.

Re SA and PAYE post processing

HMRC is quoted by the ICAEW:

"The post on hand position for Self Assessment and PAYE (individuals) continues to improve and we hope that agents are starting to see this. Although receipts remain high (as expected at this time of year) the overall post on hand has fallen below 500,000 and every effort is being made to maintain or improve this position.

The age profile of the post also continues to stabilise with over 98% of the post currently on hand received by HMRC within the last 40 days. Of that, 85 per cent was received within the last 20 working days. The recent introduction of the single PO Box addresses will enable us to handle post more efficiently.

Agents have told us that they would benefit from seeing HMRC performance statistics – specifically expected turnaround times – published externally. We’re exploring how best this can be achieved with our HMRC colleagues."

The ICAEW makes a rather "cynical" comment:

"If these statistics are to be believed we welcome the improvement..."

Do I detect a hint that the ICAEW does not believe HMRC's statistics?:)

".. The figures will become more meaningful when we have year-on-year statistics showing post volumes throughout the year (as volumes of post will vary depending on the time of the year). (It should be noted that these statistics do not cover corporation tax, employer matters or other post.)"

Re Time taken to receive correspondence from HMRC


HMRC at last proposes to review the process to see what can be done to reduce the time lag.

Suggestions welcome!

HMRC is also interested in receiving examples of lengthy delays.

Therefore please feel free to post your experiences here, because HMRC do read this site.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

The Knock

HMRC is determined to "up its game" and to ensure that those it suspects of evading taxes are dealt with sternly.

All very well, if it uses its powers sensibly and responsibly.

The question is, based on this recent query raised on AccountingWeb, is HMRC using its powers sensibly and responsibly?

Is it justified for HMRC to send round inspectors to a chip shop (hardly a multi billion dollar enterprise) unannounced at 9PM?

Actions like this will not garner respect from the hard-pressed taxpayer.

Here is the query (unedited) from AccountingWeb.

"Hi everyone.

Just had a telephone call from a very upset client who had an unannounced visit by 2 HMRC inspectors to her fish and chip shop at 9.00pm last night. She was at home at the time and received a telephone call from a member of staff saying she was needed immediately.

Both myself and my client had no notice of this visit and she was very distressed by it all. They asked lots of questions as to how she ran her business, how many times she banked, how she paid her suppliers etc etc etc. She was very open with them and answered all their questions. They then waited for her to cash up the till when the shop closed at 9.30pm to make sure it agreed with the till receipt, which it did. They then left leaving my client with no idea what would happen now.

My first reaction was one of shock as I have never had this happen before and I immediately wanted to telephone HMRC to find out exactly what was going on but then I thought I would post here first to see if anyone else has any experience of this process and exactly why it has happened.

I have looked at one of HMRC helpsheets but it says as to why they do unannounced visits is when: you have chosen not to allow us to carry out (not the case here), we have made previous appointments to visit but you weren't there (not the case here) we tried to contact you (not the case here) or we have identified concerns that can only be dealt with by an unannounced visit. If this is the case will they tell me the concerns?

I look forward to hearing from you lovely people!!"

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

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What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

How To Lie With Statistics

ICAS (the professional body of Chartered Accountants) have published a response to the Treasury Committee's report into the Administration and Effectiveness of HMRC.

"In response to the Treasury Committee’s report into the Administration and Effectiveness of HMRC, Derek Allen, Director of Taxation at ICAS, the professional body of Chartered Accountants (CAs), commented:

“ICAS and other professional bodies gave evidence to the Committee expressing concerns that HMRC’s service performance was unacceptably poor. HMRC takes too long to process returns, answer letters and deal with taxpayers seeking help. HMRC has also been responsible for many errors such as issuing incorrect coding notices and delays in processing information. This has damaged public confidence in the tax system.

“The UK tax system is complex. HMRC needs to be accessible to taxpayers and their professional advisers if it is to achieve its vision of helping compliant taxpayers pay the right tax at the right time.

Sadly, HMRC deserves the criticism that they are responsible for delays and mistakes.

This undermines the trust that used to exist between taxpayers and HMRC. HMRC now needs to visibly demonstrate that it can improve its service.”

The Committee’s recommendations included:
• Improving the service provided by contact centres, particularly in relation to escalating complex queries and providing alternatives to 0845 numbers
• Providing robust alternative to online contact, including more cost-effective ways of providing face-to-face advice

The Committee’s findings are of no surprise to ICAS, who has previously voiced concerns over HMRC’s shortcomings and poor performance, reflected in surveys undertaken by the Institute.

“HMRC needs to be accountable for its performance. The Institute welcomes the recommendation that professional bodies, such as ICAS, should be involved in setting realistic performance standards for HMRC.

We are concerned that internal statistics do not reveal the true picture of delay and difficulty being caused by HMRC. It is essential that the Treasury Select Committee encourage more evidence from external sources.

The Committee should continue to monitor HMRC performance and service delivery and receive regular updates from HMRC management of the progress made to restore an acceptable service.”"

Readers should note well the comment "We are concerned that internal statistics do not reveal the true picture of delay and difficulty being caused by HMRC."

The issue of inaccurate internal statistics, survey results and manipulated feedback up the HMRC chain of command have been commented on regularly on this site. It is encouraging to see that the issue has been picked up by others.

"HMRC deserves the criticism that they are responsible for delays and mistakes."

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

The £1.2M Error

Accountancy Age reports that an error by HMRC led to a single compensation payout of £1.2m to a group of taxpayers in the 2009/10 tax year.

David Gauke, Exchequer secretary to the Treasury (ever popular on this site), revealed that HMRC made a single, exceptional payment of £1.2m as part of its ex-gratia financial redress policy.

As to what the payment/error related to we shall never know, because HMRC refused to provide details despite a freedom of information request by Accountancy Age.

Quite correctly HMRC stated that it cannot breach taxpayer confidentiality.

Quite incorrectly HMRC referred to the taxpayers as "customers".

Quote:

"What I can tell you is that the £1.2m was a single payment, paid in respect of a group of customers. We believe, however, that providing any more detail might breach our strict legal obligations to maintain taxpayer confidentiality, which is why the information is being withheld."

FFS, taxpayers are not farking "customers"!

Which bunch of useless overpaid management consultants (hired at great expense to the long suffering taxpayers) conned HMRC into referring to taxpayers as "customers"?

Even if HMRC does not change or improve anything else in its long death march towards oblivion, please please stop calling us "customers"!

Taxpayers are not farking customers!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Boycott

Taxation reports that HMRC staff members may boycott the department's next employee satisfaction survey.

For why?

It seems that offices that score poorly in the survey may be first in line for closure.

I guess the "incentive" scheme devised by HMRC management, of closing low scoring offices, is meant to encourage employees to improve the "engagement scores" etc.

How amusing that it has so publicly backfired!

The issue of low scoring offices being closed was reported on here in April. At the time HMRC back-pedalled furiously, to try to extricate itself from its own shit.

HMRC told Taxation:

"The... survey helps senior managers to understand what the key issues are for HMRC’s employees. We do not use the survey’s results to select offices for closure."

All very well, maybe, if the survey results are genuine and if the results are passed on to senior managers and Excom without being manipulated.

The question is, are the results genuine, and are the results passed on without being manipulated?

Feel free to comment.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"

Benchmarking Redundancy Payments

I assume that "benchmarking" forms part and parcel of the daily ritual of the "improvement processes" being applied in HMRC?

Therefore it may prove helpful to staff who are being made redundant to know that (according to the Telegraph) HMRC paid out £18,603,327 in redundancy payments to 528 department staff last year.

That works out at an average of around £35K each.

As already noted by one loyal reader, Bernadette Kenny, who was the director-general for personal tax at HMRC, received a lump sum of £151,480 and an annual payment of £50,493 until 2016.

She has since started work as the chief executive at the Church of England Pensions Board, a job advertised as coming with a “competitive six-figure package”.

However, she was of course a "special case".

Civil servants are all equal, except some are more equal than others.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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 Put The F Into Failure

Well then, what a "giddy" world it is in HMRC!

For many years this site has been pointing out the inefficiencies and failures of HMRC, comments from staff and loyal readers show that the edifice that is HMRC is crumbling day by day.

Finally those with some alleged "control" over HMRC (ie the politicians) have woken up to the ongoing car crash that is HMRC.

On 30th July (a Saturday for some reason, surely not trying to hide the report were they?) the Treasury Select Committee published a report into the administration and effectiveness of HMRC.

Unsurprisingly it found that there is considerable dissatisfaction among the public and tax professionals with the service provided by the Department. The committee is concerned that if this continues it may undermine respect for the tax system.

Quite!

Serious concerns were reported in a number of areas, all of which have featured many times on this site, including:

- Unacceptable difficulties contacting HMRC by phone during peak periods
- Endemic delays in responding to post
- An increasing focus on online communication that may exclude those without reliable internet access

"we do not accept the Department's explanation that these problems are primarily the result of reconciling of multiple PAYE tax years at once. There is a serious risk that if communicating with HMRC becomes too time-consuming, difficult and expensive, respect for the tax system, and with it voluntary compliance, may be undermined....

The National Insurance and PAYE Service should ultimately make PAYE work more effectively and ensure efficiencies across the Department. However, the problems resulting from its flawed implementation have done significant damage to the public perception of HMRC and the tax system more generally...

Implementing RTI before the system and its interface into HMRC have been properly tested could led to greater delays later on and further damage public confidence in the Department and the tax system. ...

HMRC operates under significant pressures. It has to implement increasingly complex tax legislation, sometimes developed without full account of the practical consequences, whilst undergoing restructuring, delivering substantial resource reductions and job cuts....

We received disturbing evidence of job cuts being made before the efficiencies that were intended to enable them had been delivered, and of a culture of command and control that disengages staff and prevents potential problems from being dealt with effectively. ...

Whilst staff remain dedicated to their work despite the pressures HMRC is under, they have little confidence in the leadership of the Department or that change will be for the better. This has been a long-running problem for the Department. Whilst senior management are very aware of the problem and have made efforts to improve engagement, there has been little evidence of any positive impact to date. "

The committee made recommendations in the following areas:

- Improving the service provided by contact centres, particularly in relation to escalating complex queries and providing alternatives to 0845 numbers
- Providing robust alternative to online contact, including more cost-effective ways of providing face-to-face advice
- Ensuring greater awareness of the impact of process changes on individuals and businesses, in particular recommending senior staff spend time with tax practices, charities and businesses
- Ensuring reductions in resources are managed in a way that is commensurate with the enabling IT and process improvements and minimises the loss of Departmental tax expertise
- Reviewing the division of responsibilities between HMRC and HM Treasury in relation to making tax policy, to ensure practical considerations are taken into account at the earliest possible stage
- Better targeting of letters that threaten serious consequences against individuals
- Having the National Audit Office externally audit preparations for Real-time Information, to ensure Ministers can be held accountable for progress against the Government’s ambitious timetable
- Examining how the Department can achieve better accountability around the settlement of large tax cases

Loyal readers will find none of the above at all surprising. The only real surprise is that it has taken this long for someone to officially admit (albeit politicians passing the buck) that there is something wrong.

Oddly enough Dame Lesley Strathie is off on 3 months sick leave. Thus leaving the response/excuse to Clasper.

Here is what he said to the BBC:

"Stand back and look at the other side of the equation..., receipts £468 billion, £33 billion than more than the year before..." (BBC

All very nice, maybe. Except that there is one small fly in his oinkment.

In 2007-08 receipts were £461.6 billion (only £6.4 billion difference between this year and 2008). Receipts were in fact falling since 2007/08, and are only back now to where they were before.

Anyhoo, as noted many times on this site, the fundamental problems wrt HMRC stem from a.o.:

- insufficient resources of the right quality in the right place
- a botched merger
- lousy management (appointed by management)
- an absurdly complex tax system etc etc.

All of the above issues are in the remit of the politicians, until the politicians get their act together and admit responsibility this mess will never be sorted out. Unfortunately the politicians will not do this, and will continue to pass the buck.

Things will only get worse!

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE 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 Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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"