HMRC The Sinking Ship - Mike Clasper Resigns

Last Tuesday I wrote the following:

"I was gemused to read an article by Tony Hetherington, in which he lambastes HMRC's executive structure.

One particular issue he raised concerned Mike Clasper (the semi invisible Chairman of HMRC). Hetherington asked HMRC whether anyone represents "ordinary PAYE taxpayers" on HMRC's board.

The answer from HMRC was rather interesting in that, for reasons best known to themselves, HMRC lied.

Quote:

"Our chairman is also chairman of Which?"

 That's grand, except that Clasper isn't chairman of Which?

Clasper is not even a member of its governing council, instead he chairs an offshoot company ( Which? Limited) that handles the commercial activities of Which?, but not Which? consumer campaigns.

Why did HMRC lie about something that could be (and was) so easily checked and proven to be wrong? "

Fortunately for HMRC it seems that it won't have to lie very much longer about Clasper's other roles.

For why?

He has resigned, although he will probably remain physically in his role until the end of this year.

This is rather ironic that he has resigned, given that I and a loyal reader were only just discussing the fact that one of the major problems that HMRC faces is its lack of continuity of policy/direction:

"Anon: Ken One of the major problems at HMRC is lack of continuity or consistent policy direction at the top. There is nothing wrong in principle with bringing in people from the private sector to provide management expertise but the reality is that the three year contracts under which much of Excom is employed results in inevitable leadership churn. 

For example, I believe the CIO Phil Pavitt's engagement is due to expire in September 2012 and he will probably be leaving HMRC this year. This means that HMRC may have a new CIO right in the middle of one of the most crucial computer projects in its history. I find it difficult to believe that Pavitt's replacement will be able to avoid the temptation to tinker with his predecessors technical strategy and may even want to do things radically different. 

The musical chairs at Board level might be great for for ambitious career free booters keen on lucrative one off gigs that add notches to their CVs but it breeds a corrosive short termist view within the organisation which means long term planning is almost impossible.

Ken: You have hit the nail on the head, in fact the problem wrt continuity is a blight that affects many gov departments (and indeed the private sector) ie:

"Five year projects being run by two your managers".

Specifically a project (eg restructuring or IT implementation) that will take many years to implement and bed in requires consistent high quality leadership.

"High quality" leaders (or rather those who are ambitious) have two year mindsets (always looking for the next step up the ladder).

These people take on projects like this on the explicit understanding that they will be promoted in two years, if they make a "success" of it.

The best way to make a "success" is to change whatever the previous managers did, blame him/her for all cock ups, and implement a 100 days "quick wins" policy etc."

What with Homer being new (and not exactly a career "success story" based on her past) Hartnett leaving and Pavitt (as per above) possibly coming the end of his contract this year, this additional departure from the high command leaves very few experienced people on the bridge of the already fatally holed HMRC.

Evidently Clasper has seen the writing on the wall wrt HMRC's future, and wants to move on to more rewarding opportunities. Anyone care to guess which "customer" of HMRC he will join, as is the norm, to act on their behalf when they are negotiating their future tax bills?

It will be interesting to see who replaces Clasper, and indeed whether Clasper leaves HMRC with some form of "golden goodbye".

I wonder who is next to go?

Rats know when ships are sinking.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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 Issue 12,000 Erroneous Penalty Notices

Oh dear,  it seems that (despite what we are told) Pacesetter can't quite fix everything in HMRC.

The BBC reports that approximately 12,000 people, told by HMRC that they no longer needed to fill in self-assessment tax forms, have been sent penalty notices in error.

The penalty notices from HMRC come ahead of new £10 daily fines for non-filing which start on Tuesday. Those affected were told that they no longer had to complete a self-assessment form, because their tax bill could be dealt with through PAYE.

All those on HMRC's records who did not complete a self-assessment, as expected by HMRC, received a letter in February/March asking them to contact HMRC if they felt they no longer needed to be in the self-assessment system.

Fair enough.

As a result, 130,000 people were taken out of the self-assessment process and HMRC's records were changed.

However, 12,000 of these people are now receiving penalty notices in error.

HMRC are quoted (using the obligatory Pacesetter "C word" again):

"We are very sorry and can reassure these customers that we know who they are and that this letter is incorrect - they do not owe a penalty. We are writing to all of them to apologise and to explain this error.

It is very unfortunate that this process error has taken the shine off the good news that we have taken 130,000 people out of self-assessment."

The penalty notices state that in addition to the fixed penalty of £100 for late filing, fines of £10 a day kick in from Tuesday, up to a maximum of £900.

I dare say that this snafu can be added to the whiteboards for process improvement!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Pacesetter Works!

On Wednesday I wrote the following:

"However, it is suspected that this is an excuse to cover the fact that the Solicitor's Office has a backlog of thousands of such cases.

Why has such a backlog arisen?

Step forward HMRC's much "loved" Pacesetter work process, which seemingly has caused the backlog.

Apparently endless amounts of time and money are now being spent trying to reinvent the wheel to make processes more efficient. Unfortunately all that happens is that the opposite happens, and work doesn't get done and backlogs develop ."

Well, it looks as though I was wrong. Pacesetter, according to this comment posted by a loyal reader, is in fact working very well indeed:

"Unfortunately though (for all the Pacesetter/Naysayers) across ALL depts, productivity has increased significantly year by year since it's introduction.

I'm sure Ken a simple FOI request would clarify this, rather than an observation that is 'seemingly' apparent. Unless you want to share your source? "

So you see folks I was wrong!

As were all staff across "ALL depts", who have been slagging Pacesetter off; it really does work, and we are very foolish to even to try to deny that!

No more negative comments about Pacesetter please, as these seem to be upsetting the powers that be.

Of course claiming that Pacesetter is a "success" all very much depends on what your definition of "success" and "increased productivity" is, and what KPI's are used (not all KPI's add real value to an organisation or its processes).

Tax does have to be taxing.

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 Call Centre Performance

As loyal readers know, getting through to HMRC on the phone can be a tad difficult at times.

On 17 April HMRC issued a briefing note to various professional bodies (including the ICAEW) apologising for HMRC's less than stellar performance over Easter. For reasons best known to HMRC it hasn't yet posted this on its own website (as far as I can see anyway) for ordinary taxpayers to read.

Oddly enough they don't mention their own goal regarding self assessment, when HMRC officially announced:

"Under a new initiative to help its customers, HMRC has confirmed that anyone who receives a penalty, but who believes they don’t need to be in Self Assessment, can call the department on 0845 900 0444."

Anyhoo for your delectation and delight here is the full text of HMRC’s briefing note:

Our Contact Centre performance last week

A number of customers have experienced difficulty getting through to our helplines following the Easter period. We are taking urgent steps to rectify the situation as quickly as possible and response times are improving this week. We are very sorry for any inconvenience and wanted to let you know what we are doing to address the situation.

What happened?

Against much improved performance over the last few months, we have had a very challenging week following the Easter break.

In preparation for the new tax year, we update our systems over a weekend in April. These updates keep our systems in line with legislation, help lower costs and ensure that our critical systems are maintained. During the period in which these updates take place, our services are disrupted and we are not able to make changes to customer records. 

This year, we updated our systems over the Easter weekend, when demand is generally lower. Following the Easter break, we have experienced some of our busiest days. Demand from customers calling us back following the planned system update coupled with higher than anticipated levels of calls from taxpayers responding to the invitation to query the need to complete a self assessment tax return which went out with the 2011/12 notices to file.

We have also seen increases in calls to our Tax Credits helpline from customers notifying us of changes to their circumstances, as a result of previous Budget changes, further increasing our already high demand.

The 370,000 callers who rang on Tuesday 10 April was the second highest number of callers on any day in the last 12 months.

We have also been experiencing some technical telephony issues during this period, which we continue to work through.

What are we doing to improve service levels?

We have longstanding arrangements in place to redeploy staff to cope with peaks in demand. And we do this in “real time” to try and ensure that we can offer the best possible service levels we can.

In the light of the exceptional demand we have seen over the past few days, we have deployed all available trained staff within our Contact Centre network to handle additional PAYE and SA demand, as well as an additional 350 staff from processing offices around the country to help us to manage the additional calls we are receiving.

We are deploying front line managers to answer calls, and have cancelled all training time on our busiest days to ensure we are in a position to improve service levels as soon as possible.

We are already looking closely at how we can more effectively manage demand during this period in 2013/14 and for the future as part of our ongoing review processes.

What should our customers do?

These measures are already taking effect and service is improving, but demand for our PAYE and SA helplines continue to be high.

It will help us to improve further if customers with non urgent enquiries can defer their call until next week when we are confident these measures will have improved things even more.

We will keep you up to date with our progress.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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's Pacesetter Shambles

My thanks to a loyal reader (LR) who advised me of some issues that he/she has heard about in HMRC's enforcement office in Worthing.

LR understands that staff there have been told to stop sending work to the Solicitor's Office in London, the official reason being a lack of money to fund such proceedings; ie, if this is the real reason, there is no longer enough money in the relevant budget to collect tax!

However, it is suspected that this is an excuse to cover the fact that the Solicitor's Office has a backlog of thousands of such cases.

Why has such a backlog arisen?

Step forward HMRC's much "loved" Pacesetter work process, which seemingly has caused the backlog.

Apparently endless amounts of time and money are now being spent trying to reinvent the wheel to make processes more efficient. Unfortunately all that happens is that the opposite happens, and work doesn't get done and backlogs develop.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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's Porkie Pie

I was gemused to read an article by Tony Hetherington, in which he lambastes HMRC's executive structure.

One particular issue he raised concerned Mike Clasper (the semi invisible Chairman of HMRC). Hetherington asked HMRC whether anyone represents "ordinary PAYE taxpayers" on HMRC's board.

The answer from HMRC was rather interesting in that, for reasons best known to themselves, HMRC lied.

Quote:

"Our chairman is also chairman of Which?"

 That's grand, except that Clasper isn't chairman of Which?

Clasper is not even a member of its governing council, instead he chairs an offshoot company (Which? Limited) that handles the commercial activities of Which?, but not Which? consumer campaigns.

Why did HMRC lie about something that could be (and was) so easily checked and proven to be wrong?


Tax does have to be taxing.

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 Issues May Day Alert

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is urging anyone who has still not done their 2010/11 tax return to send it online before the end of April, or be charged daily penalties from 1 May.

Anyone whose Self Assessment return is more than three months late will now be charged a further £10 penalty for each day it remains outstanding, up to a maximum of 90 days. This is on top of the £100 late-filing penalty they have already received.

This means people who file their 2010/11 return online on or after 1 May will be liable to daily penalties, as the deadline for these was 31 January. Daily penalties for paper returns began on 1 February, as paper returns were due by the earlier deadline of 31 October.

Looking ahead, further penalties of at least £300 (or 5 per cent of the tax due, if that is more) will be issued for returns that are 6 and 12 months late.

Anyone who’s received a late-filing penalty, hasn’t yet sent a return, but thinks they don’t need to be in Self Assessment, should call HMRC on 0845 900 0444. If HMRC agrees, the return and any penalty will be cancelled. Visit www.hmrc.gov.uk/latetaxreturn for further information.

HMRC’s Stephen Banyard said:

“We want the returns and not penalties. So, if you haven’t sent us your 2010/11 return, you need to do one of two things urgently – either send it online by 30 April, or call us if you think you shouldn’t have to complete one.”

Notes for editors
1. The new penalties for late Self Assessment returns are:

• an initial £100 fixed penalty, which will now apply even if there is no tax to pay, or if the tax due is paid on time;
• after 3 months, additional daily penalties of £10 per day, up to a maximum of £900;
• after 6 months, a further penalty of 5% of the tax due or £300, whichever is greater; and
• after 12 months, another 5% or £300 charge, whichever is greater.

2. There are also additional new penalties for paying late of 5% of the tax unpaid at: 30 days; 6 months; and 12 months.
3. Further information on the new penalties is available from the HMRC website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/sa/deadlines-penalties.htm

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

In Which The Prime Minister Talks Bollocks

My thanks to a loyal reader who pointed me in the direction of a particular piece of bollocks spoken by the Prime Minister (seen here on the left), on 19th April, wrt staffing levels at HMRC.

Seemingly, in the Prime Minister's world, staffing levels at HMRC have "increased":

“We have actually increased staffing levels at Revenue and Customs.”

David Cameron came out with this nonsense when he was responding to a question from Labour MP Teresa Pearce.

Ms Pearce was highlighting something that loyal readers of this site know very well, namely that  10,000 staff are to be cut from HMRC despite the fact that hundreds of thousands more people are being brought into the tax system and the fact that is evident from issues wrt codings, call centre problems, letter delays etc etc that HMRC can't cope now let alone in the future.

How on earth the could the Prime Minister say something that is quite so obviously bollocks?

Channel 4 News have gamely tried to give him some wiggle room, they note that the Chancellor has allowed HMRC to spend £917M from the efficiency savings, as long as it promised to bring in an extra £7BN a year.

That spending will, according to the National Audit Office (NAO), reduce the real terms cut in running costs from 25% to 16.5% and limit job losses to 10,000 instead of a potential 19,000.

In other words the PM was saying that the reduced headcount is not as bad as it could have been.

Well then!

I leave it to my loyal readers to decide individually as to whether the PM was talking bollocks.

To my mind, and of course I am biased, I think that he was talking bollocks and that it is clear the politicians have no idea how bad things are going to become wrt HMRC and its interactions with the taxpaying voters!

Like it or not, HMRC (as is the NHS) is one of the few government agency that we all have to deal with. Therefore when things go wrong, and they will, people will quite rightly blame the government.


Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Question Re HMRC's SA200 Short Tax Return

An enquiry from a loyal reader about the SA200 Short Tax Return:

"Use the SA200 Short Tax Return when HMRC asks you to. 

This return is sent to specific customers - it can't be downloaded and can't be ordered online."

prompts me to ask, on her behalf, the following question.

Why can't it be downloaded or ordered online?


Tax does have to be taxing.

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 Postal Delays - Danielle Stewart's World Rocked

As loyal readers know, communicating with HMRC is not always that easy. The call centres are inundated with calls and are having trouble handling them all (oh, by the way, until HMRC allow staff to take ownership of a specific enquiry/problem this situation is never going to improve).

Anyhoo, as you may recall last week I wrote about Danielle Stewart a partner in Baker Tilly who said the following about HMRC's postal delays:

"so much better over recent years......their standard of response nowadays is so fast you can't believe it compared to what it used to be. 

You could wait months for a reply.

Now you'll be surprised if you wait a week."

No one was particularly impressed with her bizarre interpretation of the reality of communicating with HMRC (one loyal reader even suggested that she may be after an OBE or something).

Today I received, from another loyal reader, a damning indictment of the reality of trying to communicate with HMRC (by phone and by post):

"We started up in business 18 months ago when at the ages of 57 and 59 we had no opportunity for employment, so this is our first return, we have been fined £100 each for failing to submit a partnership for SA800 (they sent it to our old address so we knew nothing of it). Our normal forms went in on time. 

We have since been inundated with letters from HMRC Cardiff and Newcastle wanting the SA800 which has been submitted. I receive a letter every week from them, but when you eventually get onto the help line are told that it takes 4 weeks for them to reply to your letters. I have now sent 6 letters (some of which are registered or have proof of posting) so god knows when I will get a reply. 

Sunderland is wanting payment of the fine which I paid in the hope of getting a refund. I have had 3 letters from them, and replied to each but still they are threatening to send in the bailiffs.

I am not going to be working for myself again, I cannot go through this performance again. There is no wonder this country is in such a mess, a company run like this would have gone to the wall years ago!"

Any comments Danielle?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Hanging On The Telephone - Call Rationing

In February I wrote the following:

"HMRC have slightly softened their earlier stance on fining people £100 for failure to send in a self assessment on time (even if they owe no tax). HMRC now states that outstanding returns and associated penalties, where taxpayers call HMRC and explain that they do not need to be in the self assessment (SA) system, may be cancelled.

HMRC will be sending a flyer with the penalty notice, inviting taxpayers to phone the general SA helpline number if they think they don’t need to be in SA."

A few days later, HMRC officially announced:

"Under a new initiative to help its customers, HMRC has confirmed that anyone who receives a penalty, but who believes they don’t need to be in Self Assessment, can call the department on 0845 900 0444."

As loyal readers wryly observed at the time, given that under "normal circumstances" getting through to HMRC is rather "problematic", this added workload on the already overworked call centres may be a straw that breaks the camel's back.

In fact one loyal reader noted the following:

"that's news to me and I work on the SA helpline!"

Now from all of the above I know that my wise and experienced loyal readers would have seen what was quite obviously going to happen. Unfortunately, for reasons best known to HMRC, HMRC did not see what would happen. Possibly because HMRC ban their staff from reading/contributing to this site:

"Anon:Pat on the back Ken. I would show my manager this, as an example of how to deal with making a mistake. I would, but I'd be facing a disciplinary for reading/contributing to the blog.............lol. 

Ken:You still banned from reading this then? 

Anon:Yep. Or mentioning it. Or thinking about it......."

Anyhoo, that aside, here we are in April and HMRC are having to apologise for a "slippage" in the call handling/answering "quality".

As per HMRC:

"We are aware that over the last few days the steady improvement in contact centre service since 2010 has slipped.

We are determined to reverse that.

This slippage has been in large part due to extremely high levels of calls from taxpayers responding to our invitation to query the need to complete a self assessment tax return. We apologise to those callers who have been unable to get through to us. 

To tackle this additional demand we have:

• moved 350 staff from other duties in HMRC into our contact centres
• focused all self assessment-trained staff within our contact centres onto the lines dealing with self assessment calls
• moved managers and trainers onto front-line contact centre services.

These measures are already taking effect and service is improving, but it will help us to restore services more quickly if taxpayers with non-urgent enquiries can defer their call until next week, when we are confident these measures will have improved things even more."

Therefore folks, do not call HMRC unless it is urgent!

Seemples!

BTW wrt tax, given HMRC's rather pushy manner these days, what constitutes "urgent/non urgent"?

I suppose people could write to HMRC, given that (according to Danielle Stewart of Baker Tilly) HMRC's postal service is farking excellent! However, irrespective of what Daniell says, don't hold your breath expecting a swift response

Now if only HMRC could remove the ban they have on their staff visiting this site, then maybe HMRC would be less prone to cock ups like this in future as HMRC staff would be forewarned of the possible consequences of HMRC's actions and be able to help HMRC management avoid these "snafus".

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Phil Pavitt Visits The Coalface

My thanks to a loyal reader who advises me that Phil Pavitt (HMRC's go to man for all things IT) is visiting the coalface today.

A fantastic opportunity for staff to discuss their IT and systems problems with him?

Unfortunately, those of you who may be busily preparing questions to ask him will be severely disappointed.

I understand that he is only meeting a few people, and that his visit is not timed to start until 17:00 (just a few minutes away in fact).

Oh, and he's only staying for 30 minutes!

However, if you do get a chance to speak to him please ask him how RTI is really going!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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 In The Dock

HMRC is in court today, and will have to defend itself against allegations, made by UK Uncut, that it gave Goldman Sachs a sweetheart deal on the repayment of unpaid taxes worth up to £20M.

The Guardian sates that Goldman Sachs have not opposed the hearing or rebutted the claims directly.

However, HMRC are not happy to be in the dock and have stated that the National Audit Office should investigate the claims.

All very well, maybe, if the NAO has any power to quash the deal and force HMRC to reclaim the money in full. UK Uncut claim that it doesn't have that power.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Georgie Porgie's Great Expectations!

On the 29th of March George Osborne dropped Lin Homer (CEO of HMRC) a wee note outlining his expectations for HMRC.

Entitled "Remit for HM Revenue and Customs 2012-13" the letter, after congratulating Homer on her appointment, sets out what he wants Homer to do.

Unsurprisingly, "maximising the collection of taxes" takes tops billing - an additional £17BN is required in fact! Coupled with "efficiency savings of 25%" by 2015 HMRC has its work cut out for it.

The government's "flagship" policy RTI also receives a mention.

By way of encouragement, Osborne has said that he will pop over to HMRC in the coming months, to thank staff personally for their achievements (something to look forward to in the calls centres, eh folks?;)).

I do not know that Homer's reaction to the letter has been. However, the ICAEW is a tad underwhelmed and notes that Osborne's "great expectations" could damage its level of service if the headcount continues to drop.

Paul Aplin, chairman of ICAEW’s tax faculty, said:

"The chancellor has set HMRC a very challenging target for raising additional revenue while coping with further cuts in headcount. While fully understanding the need to cut costs across government to reduce the deficit, there must be serious concerns - based on experience over recent years - about the potential effect on service.
Further reductions in resource could easily damage prospects for the improvement in HMRC service delivery that is vital for the effective operation of the tax system. The department needs more resource, not less and if deployed effectively it should be self-funding. 

It is important that HMRC only mandate RTI when it has been fully tested and has proved itself to be operating efficiently and effectively in accordance with the Carter Principle. RTI is an ambitious, project being pursued on an ambitious timescale and it is essential that it works as intended on launch."

As and when RTI fails, Osborne will throw Homer to the wolves.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Hanging On The Telephone

My thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me this note today, concerning the running sore that is HMRC's call answering times:

"More evidence, if such were needed, of the ridiculous waiting times at HMRC. 

I rang them this morning at 8.45am and after a wait time of 40 minutes I finally gave up. I wouldn't mind as much if it hadn't taken 5 minutes of listening to various options before I got to the correct menu! 

I decided to try again a 11.00am but this time they kindly didn't make me wait at all !!! 

Instead they told me to ring back later because they  'could not deal with my call at this time'. 

Since HMRC assure me that I am a 'customer' let's hope that British businesses don't treat their customers this way."

Still, the good news according to Danielle Stewart of Baker Tilly is that HMRC's postal system is working spiffingly!

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's Titanic Memorial

Today being the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking, it seems appropriate to highlight this well crafted comment made by a loyal reader yesterday about RTI (which topically makes an analogy of RTI hitting an iceberg):

"There are over 4 million employers in the UK. The RTI Pilot is running with just a handful. I gather even by October 2012 the number will have only been increased to a couple of thousand. This is still only about 0.05% of the total. The plans seem to suggest that over 99% of employers are going to be brought into the scheme from April-October 2013. This is a challenging timetable to put it mildly.

More worryingly the number of employee record being processed each year is going to balloon from about 25 million annual returns to in excess of 500 million weekly or monthly returns. This is going to put a great deal of pressure on HMRC already creaking IT systems. In particular the need for data to flow through the system on a relatively short cycle (ie weekly or monthly rather than annually) means that any failures in the application will lead to back logs of returns building up quite quickly. Once that happens the system may struggle ever to recover.

On the face of it RTI has potential disaster written all over it. However, this probably wont happen until after the pilot using a few carefully selected employers has been declared a success. Expect everyone involved to jump ship at that stage before it hits the iceberg and sinks with all hands."

Call me a cynic, but I do not believe that RTI has a hope in hell of coming in on schedule, on budget or on specification.

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 World According To Danielle Stewart

I was a tad gobsmacked when I heard Danielle Stewart (partner in Baker Tilly) singing HMRC's praises (re their handling of post) in this video discussion about the recent Budget.

Run the video forward to 17:30 and you will hear her say the following about HMRC's postal delays:

"so much better over recent years......their standard of response nowadays is so fast you can't believe it compared to what it used to be. 

You could wait months for a reply.

Now you'll be surprised if you wait a week."

I can only conclude that she must have some special postal arrangement with HMRC.

Stuart Jones is less than impressed:

"Would she please tell the rest of us which HMRC she is writing to because it definitely isn't the one I deal with every day?

P.S. I have been writing this as I wait for HMRC  to answer the phone. Up to now I have waited 24 minutes 29 seconds."

I welcome examples from the non Danielle Stewart real world of HMRC's postal response times. 

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"

Hanging On The Telephone

In keeping with the "phone" theme this week, my thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me a wee note yesterday about the time he spent on the phone trying to get through to HMRC:

"I have just spent one hour and fifteen minutes on the phone to HMRC listening to a voice saying 'we will be with you as soon as possible'.

I gave up ! 

I tried to phone them yesterday I got through, listened to the options for ten minutes and was then told please ring back as we are too busy! 

I have just sent an email to my local MP on the matter, I look forward to his reply."

Please let us know if your MP offers you any advice or assistance.

Has anyone had to wait longer than this to get through?

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"

Hanging On The Telephone - LITRG Mystery Shopper

As loyal readers know, the subject of contacting HMRC via the telephone has been discussed on this site on numerous occasions over the years. In the halcyon days of the Inland Revenue, back in 1997/98, a call to them would be answered within 30 seconds 91% of the time. However, that was then, and now is now.

Approximately a year ago, Mike Clasper (the all but invisible chairman of HMRC) promised the Treasury Sub-Committee that he expected to see a “period of steady improvement” in HMRC’s performance in answering the telephone.

Here we are in 2012 and step forward the Low Income Tax Reform Group (LITRG) which, a couple of days ago, decided to test HMRC's helplines by using a "mystery shopper".

On Tuesday 10 April 2012, LITRG made three calls to HMRC helplines using the routes taken by an ordinary PAYE caller, a pensioner and a tax credit claimant. On average the wait was 29 minutes. LITRG note that on a PAYG mobile that could have cost £11.60 per call, which could equate to half a day’s income for a pensioner (my advice here is that you should avoid calling HMRC using a PAYG mobile).

LITRG state:

"No doubt, HMRC will claim that there was pent-up demand over Easter. But a customer-centric organisation (as HMRC claim to be) would add extra resources in anticipation.

HMRC will also say that three calls are not statistically valid. But until they do their own mystery shopping and publish the results, we are quite prepared to consider a half-hour wait as not unusual."

LITRG offer some advice:

"People who cannot get through after a short period of waiting should make a note of when they rang. And if any adverse consequences occur because they were not able to do what HMRC required them to do, they should complain and ask to be compensated."

Good luck with extracting compensation!

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"

Hanging On The Telephone

I was gemused to read on the Economia members' page of Linkedin this post from Gavin Williams last month, concerning a phone call to HMRC:

"On a recent call to HMRC, only this time using the number advised for callers from abroad, I got through to a human being within 30 seconds.

In the spirit of keeping it up I congratulated the revenue on their customer service improvements.

Response: 'we are aware of the problem and it will be fixed soon. Callers from the UK will not be able to use the international number.' "

As I noted yesterday, it's almost as though HMRC is developing a sense of humour/irony!

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 Displays a Sense of Humour

My compliments to the good people working in HMRC's High Net Worth Unit, who clearly have a well developed sense of humour, for showing wee Georgie Porgie an anonymised copy of his own tax return!

Well done lads, that's made my day!

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 Delays Repayments - Updated

Economia reports that a survey, conducted by Bloomsbury Professional, highlights a consensus amongst those taxpayers surveyed that delays by HMRC in paying tax rebates are worsening.

Martin Casimir, Bloomsbury’s managing director, is quoted:

“HMRC does not pay any interest on tax repayments which effectively gives it an incentive to drag its heels.

The concern for taxpayers is that the amounts involved can be substantial, which can cause serious cashflow problems. 

Businesses have been known to get into financial difficulty, or even go bust, while waiting for a tax rebate from HMRC.”

Delays in the payments of rebates have been discussed on this site before. Therefore, as ever, I am interested in hearing the views of loyal readers.

Do you agree with the survey's conclusion?

UPDATE

Oops, red faces all round.

As was quite correctly pointed out yesterday, by a loyal and observant reader, Martin Casimir's assertion that HMRC does not pay interest on tax repayments is wrong. HMRC (as I noted in the comments section) does in fact pay 0.5% (perversely it charges 3% for late payments).

I wrote to Martin yesterday about it, and Bloomsbury have acknowledged that they were wrong and will be asking Economia to correct their copy.

It is shameful that Economia (the professional magazine of the ICAEW) and myself (an FCA) didn't spot it when we published Martin's quotes!

So well done and thanks for pointing that out, and mea culpa on my part for being asleep yesterday!

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"