HMRC Promises Not To sell Tax Data

The Register reports that HMRC has promised not to sell any taxpayer data to the private sector, only "share" it.

 "No final decisions have been taken, but HMRC remains committed to safeguarding taxpayer confidentiality," El Reg was told by an HMRC spokesman.

HMRC would only share data where this would generate clear public benefits, and where there are robust safeguards in place. There is no question of HMRC selling data."

He added:

Last year’s consultation made it very clear that there would be a rigorous accreditation process for anyone wanting access to the data and that any access would take place in a secure environment. Those accessing data would be subject to the same confidentiality provisions as HMRC staff, including a criminal sanction for unlawful disclosure of taxpayer information.
HMRC will be consulting further and will ask for views on whether to charge to cover the costs of processing and providing anonymised data. This would not be charging for the data itself, purely covering the costs of providing it.

We understand that the types of "anonymised" data the HMRC could offload includes employment information about citizens who have been in government programmes to help them find a job and housing info to see how certain characteristics might be connected to excess winter mortality rates."

So that's alright then?

Irrespective of the promise not to charge for the data, there is still a way that HMRC can benefit if it it uses its brains.

How?

Simply follow a similar business model to the one that it employs with Cable & Wireless for 0845 numbers, wherein Cable & Wireless earn revenue from the number whilst offsetting part of that revenue against the charges HMRC for providing the phone service.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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HMRC Strike Ballot

The Morning Star reports that 50,000 tax workers are being balloted on industrial action in a dispute over job cuts.

The Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) which announced the ballot yesterday.

PCS is quoted:

“Despite significant opposition, HMRC is pressing ahead with the closure of all its 281 walk-in enquiry centres.

This will cut face-to-face tax advice for millions of people, particularly older people and migrant workers, and put 1,300 jobs at risk.”

The ballot closes on Friday, May 16. If members vote for action, PCS is planning to launch a series of one-day and shorter strikes, and other forms of industrial action.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: 

“A decade of cuts has left HMRC unable to cope with its crucial job of collecting the taxes that fund the other public services we all rely on.

These cuts must be stopped and the government must invest in our society and a serious clampdown on the tax dodgers who deprive our public finances of tens of billions of pounds a year.”

A PCS HMRC spokesperson is quoted on the PCS site, referring to the Ecclestone tax avoidance story:

"The irony is not lost on us or our members who see one of the richest people in Britain dodging his tax on the same day as we are being forced to ballot our members in HMRC on industrial action. The department is intent on more privatisation and cutting of our members’ jobs which will lead to less capactiy (PCS may want to spell check their site) for collection of taxes. We want to close the widening tax gap whereas this government seems happy to let billionaires get away with tax avoidance.”

Will industrial action change the current direction of HMRC, and improve its performance?

Please feel free to share your views.


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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Low Hanging Fruit

The BBC's Panorama reports that Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has avoided a potential £1.2BN in taxes as a result of a secret deal with HMRC, wherein after a nine year investigation HMRC agreed to accept £10M in 2008.

Panorama's investigation goes back to 1995, when Mr Ecclestone secured ownership of the TV rights of Formula 1.

Shortly afterwards he moved this asset offshore, giving the rights to his then wife, Slavica.
She transferred them to a family trust in Liechtenstein, before selling them for a profit, free of UK tax.

The BBC uses the phrase "tax dodge" but then, in the same sentence, notes that it is legally watertight provided Mr Ecclestone did not set up, or control, the trust.


In a case like this, both HMRC and the taxpayer's lawyers will have arguments/justifications that back up their respective positions. However, at some stage a decision has to be made (by both parties) as to whether the costs of pursuing the case outweigh the costs of coming to a settlement.

Sadly, for those of us without a phalanx of lawyers and deep pockets such "negotiations" never occur. Low hanging fruit (even if not very large) is usually the easiest to pick.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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Online Petition Against Selling Tax Data

The furore over HMRC's plans to sell off tax data to the private sector continues unabated.

An online petition has now been created asking Homer not to go forward with the plans. Thus far it has collected over 127,000 signatures.

You may sign it here.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

Whatever Happened To "Thank You"?

There is a splendid letter in today's Telegraph from a taxpayer ("customer" sticks in the throat), who is a tad upset that HMRC have used the word "penalties" 11 times in a letter covering the subject of tax returns.

The author goes on to say that such letters should in future include some words of thanks for those who have paid their tax.

Splendid!

Here is the letter in full:

"SIR – My wife and I have just received letters from HMRC informing us that it is time to complete our tax returns. In a single letter they manage to use the word “penalties” (for non-compliance) 11 times. 

Perhaps instead of threatening us with penalties, they would like to thank us for the amount of tax and National Insurance contributions we paid last year. 

May I suggest that they illustrate this with a pie chart showing a breakdown of how much we were allowed to keep and how much was spent on education, the NHS, police, defence, benefits, overseas aid, MPs’ expenses and interest payments on the national debt. I’m sure this would be very easy with their expensive new computer system. It would also be illuminating (and depressing) if they could show the running total we have paid in direct taxes since we started work almost 50 years ago. 

Graham Worthington
Lamothe-Goas, Midi-Pyrénées, France"

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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HMRC Overloaded?

HMRC no longer provide PAYE payment schedules, this practice stopped some years ago.

As per Accountingweb, HMRC said:

"Routine provision of PAYE payment schedules stopped several years ago, bringing PAYE into line with other taxes, because it was not sustainable to continue due to an increasing number of requests.

This change in approach was introduced in April 2011 and announced through Employer Bulletin Issue 38 (page 21) and subsequently incorporated into our guidance (DMBM520287), which can be accessed on the HMRC website at which is available to customers at DMBM520287, which can be accessed at: debt and return pursuit: PAYE: payment schedule requests: background." 

Guidance provided by HMRC included:

• Customers are required to maintain their own records from which relevant information can be extracted
• Additionally, the Business Tax Dashboard was introduced for the use of customers and presented another means for them to find what payments had been received and how these were allocated
• Using these two sources resolves the majority of issues, but where exceptionally this doesn’t and a customer needs help with locating a limited number of payments, then the Revenue will provide assistance.

Now this may be all very well and dandy, if HMRC do honour the third bullet point and help when things get in a muddle. Except that, according to Nichola Ross Martin, HMRC does not help out under such circumstances.

Ross Martin made an error when paying HMRC through online banking. She accidentally left out part of a PAYE reference where amounts were allocated to the previous year and to ‘suspense’.

HMRC’s debt management and banking team then contacted her about alleged underpayments, but refused to provide a list of payments received. She was unable to see which payments were lost and work out why that had happened.

On attempting to get in touch with both the debt management and banking team, and the PAYE team, she was passed back and forth.

The debt and banking team "would not admit" that she had overpaid 2013/14 because they tried to allocate her month one payment back to 2012/13. They then asked for the money for 2013/14.

"Why will HMRC not provide a schedule of the payments that they receive?" 

Methinks that the number of queries being received by HMRC along these lines have overwhelmed the system; ie it cannot cope.

Have any loyal readers had similar experiences?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

HMRC To Sell Data

I see that HMRC is planning to sell tax data to private firms.

Farking demented!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

Guinness Is Good For Mike Clasper

In March I wrote the following about Mike Clasper:

"Mike Clasper, the former Chairman of HMRC, has taken a non-executive directorship with Serco, a government services company. Clasper takes on his new role this month."

Less than one month later I see that, as per Financial Director, he has been promoted within Guinness Peat from non executive director to chairman.

Clasper was originally appointed to the board of Guinness Peat on 20 February 2014.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

G4S Awarded HMRC Contract

G4S, the company that has been in and out of the headlines over the years, has been awarded a contract to provide facilities management services to HMRC's Commercial Directorate.

The three-year contract starts this month and is worth £4M (excluding capital and project works).

G4S will provide FM services such as helpdesk and CAFM (Computer Aided Facilities Management).

There is a possibility of a two-year extension to the contract. The agreement covers three regional tax offices – Trinity Bridge House in Salford, Elgin House in Edinburgh and Cotton House in Glasgow – collectively occupied by about 2,500 people, with 3,000 visitors a month.

It is anticipated that G4S will employ 33 members of staff across the three sites. The contract will mobilise in phases, with the largest property, Trinity Bridge House, beginning on 15 April 2014 and the other two likely to follow in January 2015.

G4S will provide a range of core and managed services including; cleaning, waste management, catering, reception, security and grounds maintenance as well as health and safety, fire safety, environmental management, energy and waste management through managed suppliers.

Source FMWorld

By happenstance Charlie Elphicke MP is quoted by the FT opining the CEO of G4S's remuneration package:

“People will rightly ask how a company that has let down taxpayers time and time again can justify raising the pay of its chief executive by nearly a quarter. It is wholly unacceptable and wrong.”

If the company lets down the taxpayers so often, why is it being used by the government?

Oh, and by the way, it remains under an ongoing investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

Fine HMRC For Its Mistakes

As per Elaine Clark in economia:

"Dear HMRC

Due to the error which you accept you have made, my accountant and I have wasted a lot of time on this matter. We consider your error to be deliberate and you did not exercise reasonable care when dealing with my tax affairs.

To this end I impose a fine of £100 which is payable immediately.

I look forward to receiving your remittance by return.

Yours faithfully 

An honest taxpayer"

A splendid idea, sadly I doubt it will have any traction with the powers that be!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

Lean On Me - Toyota Issues Another Recall

As loyal readers know, Toyota (the company that bequeathed the world and HMRC "LEAN") has featured before on this site wrt its seemingly regular recall of its cars.

Sadly for Toyota it has had to recently issue yet another recall.

Toyota is recalling 6.4 million vehicles globally, over five separate issues.

Some 3.5 million vehicles are being recalled to replace a spiral cable attached to the driver's side airbag. It may be damaged when the steering wheel is turned and result in the airbag not being deployed in a crash.

Other issues include problems with seat rails, steering columns, windscreen wipers and a glitch with the engine starters that poses a fire risk.


Now if LEAN doesn't work effectively when used in the industry for which it was intended, how on earth can it be expected to perform effectively when applied in HMRC (a civil service department that does NOT manufacture cars)?

Answers on a whiteboard please!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

HMRC Postal Changes

My thanks to a loyal reader who has advised me that HMRC are changing their postal arrangements.

Specifically incoming post will in due course be scanned by EDM Group, a third party company that is one of the UK’s largest information management providers. The three year contract is worth £4M.

HMRC expect that the bulk of incoming post will be handled in this way by March 2015.

In theory this will speed up HMRC's response time to taxpayers' letters.

I wonder if employees of EDM who handle taxpayers' letters will be asked to sign the Official Secrets Act?

Here is the text of the HMRC manager briefing note:

Changing the way we handle post in HMRC

Manager Briefing – April 2014

Background

HMRC is changing the way we handle customer post, following a successful three-month trial. Later this year, we will introduce a new system of scanning incoming post, enabling us to send it digitally around the country in an instant and respond to customer correspondence more quickly.

Last month a contract was signed with an external provider called EDM Group. Work is now under way to agree an implementation plan – with Personal Tax and Estates & Support Services (ESS) colleagues working with the new provider over the next 8-10 weeks to agree timescales.

It is clear that people currently handling post will be impacted by this change, but we will not have the details until an implementation plan is agreed. Rather than wait until we have all these answers, we want to let affected staff know about this important change now. We will provide further details in the coming weeks as our implementation plans develop, through a series of monthly dial-ins and further face-to-face announcements.

This briefing is to provide you with information to update your post centre staff of the changes ahead.

 

Action

Please familiarise yourself with the information in this briefing. You will need to deliver these messages face to face to everyone in your location who carries out post centre duties or whose role is mainly taken up in the physical movement of post.

 

Timing

This message should be delivered in person on Tuesday, 8 April at 10.30.

Similar messages will be delivered by ESS to Regional Post Room staff at the same time.

An intranet article outlining the changes will be published on the HMRC newsroom on Wednesday 9 April.

 

Key messages

·         Following a successful trial, HMRC will start scanning incoming customer post in June 2014.

·         The new system will enable us to move incoming post around HMRC more quickly and efficiently – replying to our customers sooner.

·         It will be introduced in a phased way – starting on a small scale to test the system and how we use it.

·         We expect the bulk of our incoming post to be managed in this way by March 2015. HMRC will no longer sort and physically move post around our locations

·         Our scanning provider, EDM Group, will scan the post and provide a digital image within 48 hours of receipt, which we can then send on to any of our offices in an instant.

·         This change is no reflection on the hard work and dedication of people handling post across HMRC – both in PT Post Centres and ESS Regional Post Rooms.

·         We will provide further details in the coming weeks as our implementation plans develop, through a series of monthly dial-ins and through further face-to-face meetings.

Speaker’s message

I am here to talk to you about a change to the way HMRC handles customer post.

As you probably know, last summer we ran a three-month trial to look at scanning the mail we receive, involving teams in Cardiff and Portsmouth.

The trial showed that, by scanning post, we can reply to customer letters more quickly and efficiently because we can move it around our offices in an instant. We can send it straight to the desktops of the teams who work it, without the need to sort it or transport it.

Following that trial, HMRC has decided to introduce the scanning system for most of our incoming post.

Last month we signed a contract with an external provider called EDM Group, who we are now working with to agree a timeline for introducing the new system across the Department.

This new system means that we will not need to physically handle post on the same scale as we do now, and I’m sorry to say that this will have an impact on your roles.

I’d like to stress that this change is absolutely no reflection on the good work and dedication of people handling post across HMRC – both in PT Post Centres and ESS Regional Post Rooms. It is simply about us finding ways for digital technology to help us answer customer correspondence more quickly and in the most efficient way possible.

You will understandably want to know what this means for this team. We are now working with Estates and Support Services (ESS) and the new provider (EDM) to develop a detailed plan for when the new system will be implemented.

While I don’t have many details to provide at this point, I wanted to come today to let you know that a contract had been signed, to share the information I do have, and to let you know when we will know more.

From the planning work done so far, we agreed last week that the new scanning system will start from the middle of June this year – on a very small scale in our Portsmouth and Newcastle offices for the first few months so we can test the system and how we use it.

Teams outside these locations will not see any changes to the way they work over the first few months. Other sites will then start to come on board from the autumn, and by this time next year we expect most of our incoming post to be handled through scanning.

We will be firming up the timescales and details over the next two months, and will keep you updated through a series of monthly dial-ins and through more face-to-face visits like this. I understand that next week you will be sent an invite to the first of these dial-ins – scheduled for early May when there will be more information to provide. 

I know that this news will be very disappointing for everyone here, and that you will be worried about what the future holds for you. I’m sorry that I don’t have the answers today to the understandable questions you will have.  

The rest of HMRC will learn about this news tomorrow, when an intranet article will be published, but we wanted those of you most directly affected to hear this news from us first and personally.

You will have many questions today I’m sure, and I’ll do my best to answer them.

As I’ve said, I won’t have all the information you are looking for, but as soon as the full implementation details have been worked out, I will come back to explain them to you fully, along with the options available to everyone.

Questions and answers

This Q&A is help you answer some of the questions people might have on the day. It is not for printing and sharing at this stage, while much of the detail is not known.

A more detailed Q&A will be published in a few weeks when more is known about the timescales for implementation and what this means for individual teams.

Post Centre staff might think of further questions in the days following your announcement. These should be asked through the management chain, and in the monthly dial-ins. 

1. Why are we scanning post when we provide a good service to our customers already?

The new service will help us deal with the 15 million items of post we receive in Personal Tax more quickly and efficiently, as we won’t need to send the post around the UK and around our buildings.

           

We will be able to reply to customer letters sooner, and the new system will also improve the service we provide to our customers on the phone, as advisers talking to our customers will be able to see the post on-screen and confirm where we are in dealing with it.

Being able to move post around instantly will help our flexible working too, enabling us to have teams working on phones or post according to demand. In the future, our phone advisers may be able to respond to post while the customer is on the phone.

Scanning is not new to HMRC and is already in use in other parts of the business. For example, Enforcement and Compliance have been using Caseflow Scanning for some time.

2. Why has HMRC chosen an outsourced supplier in preference to an in-house solution?

The Proof of Concept (trial) held during April to July 2013 tested the feasibility of an in-house scanning solution and established the cost of providing the service within HMRC.

It is a government requirement to explore the best value for money (VFM) option and to do this an external market engagement exercise was also carried out. A comparison between the two demonstrated that an external supplier offers the best VFM option.

3. Is this all about saving money?
   No. Although, like all Departments, HMRC does need to make savings and digitisation will help to reduce post handling costs.  The main benefits will be in the improvements in customer service and security.

4. I work in a local post room.  Does this mean I no longer have a job?

Scanning will be introduced gradually so the effects will be felt over 2014/15, and mainly during the second half of the year. As there will be a lot less post to handle, this will mean that we need fewer post centres. At the moment we are working with ESS colleagues on the implementation plan, and we will let you know what this means for your PT Post Centre as soon as we possibly can (we expect to know by June).

5. I work in a local post room. What options are available to me?

This change will mean that the volumes of incoming post received in the RPRs will reduce significantly over a period of time. As our work reduces we will need fewer RPRs than we have now. Working out the impacts is complex and we’re doing that work now.  Until that’s completed we can’t say exactly when and where the ESS RPR’s will be in the future but we will have a clearer view by June.

6. When will the implementation plan be worked out, so you can tell me what it means for me?

We expect to have an implementation plan in the next 8-10 weeks, and we will be holding monthly dial-ins to keep people up to date as plans develop.

7. What will happen to outbound post in the future?

There is a separate project looking at introducing a Central Print Service (CPS) for outgoing mail.  We will also keep you informed of these developments over the coming months.

8. Will you be able to scan all mail from HMRC customers?

No. Particularly bulky or fiddly correspondence such as business records and receipts will not be scanned.  We have also made the decision not to include correspondence in cases that require extra security. These items will be classed as exceptions and we are in the process of setting up a small Exceptions Team. We don’t know where this team will be located at this stage.

9. What is happening to AA grade staff in HMRC?

The AA grade is a valued one within HMRC, and we have no intention of removing it entirely from the organisation. But, we have known for some time that making changes to the way we deliver our services, including far greater digitisation, will mean there will be far less clerical work available for people at this grade. In some lines of business we already have too many AAs for the work available.

We’ve tried to reduce the AA grade across HMRC as a whole. In July 2012 we recognised that around 5,000 of HMRC’s approximately 7,000 AAs were in locations where the Department needed AO grades. That’s why we launched the AA to AO Departmental promotion exercise, which enabled us to promote 1,883 people, with another 1,000 still in the promotion pool. We’ve also not been replacing AAs as they leave the Department, unless there has been a business need to do so. And, we’ve already run an exit scheme for around 400 AA-grade staff in Debt Management and Banking.

In PT, as part of our future planning, we have commissioned a review into future AA roles, our need for those roles and where those roles will be required. This review is not complete and no decisions have been taken but we will let you know what this may mean for the AA grade in PT by September.

10. Will you run another AA-AO promotion exercise?

Where we have AO vacancies we will promote people who are on the AA-AO reserve list straight away.  We will then see whether we have further vacancies and offer Temporary Promotions. We also plan to run a wider AA-AO promotion exercise in May.

11. Have the unions been consulted about this announcement?

PCS are aware of our plans and we’ll continue to work closely with them.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

HMRC's Smash and Grab Powers Illegal

It seems that the proposed new powers for HMRC that give it the right to take money from people's bank accounts may well be illegal.

Frank Haskew, head of the tax at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, told members of the Treasury select committee that it is "a fundamental tenet of our English law and our democratic society" that money "cannot be grabbed from somebody’s account without a judge agreeing to the move".

He added:

"At the end of the day, we can’t have HMRC as judge and jury on this."

Quite so!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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