Friday Smile

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"

The Demise of Purdah II - Hartley Not Guilty

Yesterday I wrote about Jonathan Hall, a senior information officer at HMRC, who had received bungs from Sun journalist Clodagh Hartley in exchange for leaking stories to the paper.

Whilst Hall had admitted wrongdoing, Hartley stood trial. The verdict is now in, and she has been found not guilty.

As per economia:

"Clodagh Hartley has been cleared of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office, two and a half years after being granted bail, as part of Operation Elveden.

The prosecution alleged that Jonathan Hall, a senior information officer at the Revenue, was paid over £4,000 by News International, a further £13,000 was paid into the account of his girlfriend Marta Bukarewicz – the majority of which was then transferred into his account, for leaks. Bukarewicz was also found not guilty.

Stories leaked to the Sun included details of an advertising campaign for the government website DirectGov, funded by £1.3m of taxpayers money.

On the morning of Budget Day 2010, the Sun also published a “leaked” announcement that there would be a rise in fuel duty.

It was revealed during Hartley’s trial that Hall has already pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office, according to the Guardian."

As I noted yesterday, doubtless Hall is but a single bad apple in HMRC's barrel. I wonder though whether he declared the income to HMRC, and whether HMRC will now cross check to see that he has done 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"

The Demise of Purdah

As loyal readers may recall, I have on occasions bemoaned the fact that Budget Purdah is now a thing of the past.

It seems that one of the reasons (aside from flabby mouthed politicians) for the demise of Purdah, is the fact that an HMRC press officer was supplying The Sun with inside information in exchange for bungs. As per the Guardian:

"A reporter on the Sun newspaper allegedly paid £17,000 to an HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) press officer for confidential information including leaked details of the 2010 budget, an Old Bailey jury heard.

Clodagh Hartley, 40, Whitehall editor of the Sun at the time, was “motivated by acquiring the next big scoop”, while her source, Jonathan Hall, a senior information officer at HMRC, was “motivated by greed”, the court was told.

Stories included details of the 2010 budget, published on budget day, “so readers of the Sun were reading details of the budget before the chancellor had got to his feet in the House of Commons”, said Zoe Johnson QC, prosecuting. Most of the payments were paid into the account of Hall’s live-in girlfriend, Marta Bukarewicz, “to cover his tracks”, it was alleged. Bukarewicz then transferred the money to Hall’s account “deceptively labelled as rent” and kept some money herself as “commission” for “her unlawful efforts”, it was alleged.""

Hall has accepted that he supplied stories to Hartley for which he was paid.

Let us trust that this is a one off, and that Hall is the only bad apple in HMRC!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

OTS Employment Status Survey

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

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

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

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

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

DRD Plans Watered Down - Seemingly

The Treasury's Direct Recovery of Debts (DRD) plans have, seemingly, been watered down. The plans now come with a number of safeguards; eg taxpayers will be afforded the right of appeal at court before any funds can be emptied from their bank accounts.

There will be a guaranteed face-to-face contact with an HMRC officer and the creation of a specialist unit to deal with cases involving vulnerable members of society, as well as the provision of a dedicated DRD team and helpline.

Additionally, action will only be taken against those with over £1,000 of tax or tax credits debt, a minimum of £5,000 will be left across debtors' accounts, a lien will only be placed on the funds in the affected account up to the value of the debt and the recalcitrant taxpayers will have 30 days (twice as long as originally planned) to contact HMRC and arrange repayment.

Many people are hailing this as a victory, and are expressing gratitude to the government for listening. All very well, and polite. However, I would make two observations:

1 There are perfectly adequate means, via the courts, already at the disposal of HMRC to recover tax debts. These extra powers are unnecessary.

2 The above modifications are merely "promises" made by Gauke et al. Until the proposed legislation is actually scrutinised, those offering thanks for a "listening" government may care to take their feet off the "gratitude pedal" and stop kowtowing.


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 Wins an Award

My thanks to a loyal reader who pointed out that not everything in HMRC's garden is covered in feculence.

Yesterday Suzanne Newton, HMRC's RTI Programme Director, won a civil service award under the category Dame Lesley Strathie Operational Excellence Award (sponsored by BT).

The judges were looking for examples of outstanding teams or individuals who have innovated, impressed and made a difference in their area over the past twelve months. Nominations were considered against award-specific criteria as well as the following elements:

Promotion or demonstration of the core values and behaviours set out in the Civil Service Code: Has the nominee acted (where relevant) with honesty, integrity, impartiality and objectivity?
Measurable benefits: Does the nomination provide evidence that demonstrates how the project or programme is having a tangible effect?
Working in partnership: Has the nominee introduced effective joint working arrangements that bring together colleagues from multiple teams, departments or other internal or external organisations?
Sustainability: Will the initiative/practice described leave a lasting legacy and can it be replicated across government?
Innovation: Has the nominee used innovative approaches, and made the best of technology available, which have resulted in a step up from business as usual and delivered real benefits to end users?
Impact: Has the nominee made an impact beyond their immediate team/business area/department?

Here is why the judges thought that Suzanne should win:

Suzanne Newton, Real Time Information Programme Director

HM Revenue & Customs
Suzanne Newton led the successful delivery of Real Time Information (RTI), a major digital government programme to reduce the burden on employers during payroll processing. RTI is the biggest modernisation of the PAYE system in 70 years and is a huge change for employers, the pensions industry and HMRC. PAYE is more accurate for employees and provides richer, more accurate, real-time data so that benefits can flex with earnings, helping welfare reform become a reality. In 2013-14, more than 1.8 million PAYE schemes were reporting RTI for 48m records, 99 per cent of the total, and HMRC processed more than 31m submissions, reporting over 660m payments to employees. RTI recently won two prestigious awards, with the Real IT Awards judges describing it as a "fantastic achievement”, demonstrating that government can and does deliver high-quality digital transformation that works.

As we all know, RTI is a real success story!

Cough......

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

HMRC Engagement Index Falls

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

To summarise, the results are shite!

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

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

You couldn't make this up if you tried.

Homer and HMRC are wallowing in their own feculence!

Here is the text of her message to staff:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thank you."

Why is this woman still in charge?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Update for Ex Com on Employee and Industrial Relations

PCS have published the transcript of an undated document entitled "Update for Ex Com on Employee and Industrial Relations" written by Jonathan Donovan, HMRC's Deputy Director Employee Relations and Advice.

It is not the most well crafted of documents I have ever encountered; the grammar and spelling leave much to be desired, eg page 2:

"..ARC have called of their dispute with HMRC.."

Notwithstanding that, the document boils down to saying relations with ARC are "normalised" but relations with PCS need to be improved, or its influence marginalised "by maintaining dialogue only to meet statutory minimum requirements".

The writing has been on the wall for many years, quite why this has taken PCS by surprise now is beyond me.

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"

Reflections In A Pool of Darkness

Goodness me, how very active the comments section of this site has become over the last few days!

There appear to be two narratives being spun out. On the one hand there is the narrative that an expose is in the offing, and some posters (or poster) are/is encouraging staff to write into Watchdog or HR outlining their grievances.

The other narrative urges caution, lest this be a game played by people with ill intent.

I have yet to determine whether the expose is true or fake. However, it is telling that the questions I raised the other day in response to a specific comment have not been answered, either publicly or privately.

Anyhoo, by happenstance, on the subject of staff morale I am indebted to a loyal reader who dropped me a note about HMRC's performance management system that was revamped in April 2013. Whilst I have written about "guided distribution", wherein the lowest 10% are rated as "must improve", I was not aware of other "nuances" within the system.

I must point out at this stage, I have not yet been able to verify if what I have been told applies to everyone or just a few people.

My loyal reader advises me that not only are there an annual and "in year" reviews (which is the case with many professional organisations), but there are also monthly "one to ones".

These monthly meetings require the hapless staff member to complete a time consuming narrative of "tasks undertaken", which theoretically are meant to be linked to previously agreed objectives and behaviours. Not only that, staff are required to produce a "reflections" document and evidence having given and received constructive feedback.

Not content with this, there are also quarterly "expectations" documents that need to be produced.

As far as I can see, such a methodology might be appropriate for staff members deemed to be on their last chance, or who have been given numerous written warnings. However, for this to be required of every staff member is at the very best a massive waste of time, and incredibly soul destroying.

I have to ask, how on earth does anyone ever get any work done in HMRC?

I would appreciate hearing from people as to whether the above is an aberration being played out by a few managers in a limited area, or whether this is the case across the whole of HMRC?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

HMRC's New Twitter Account

I see HMRC is using the "C" word again!

HMRC have a twitter account called @HMRCcustomers what an oxymoron
— Elaine Clark (@cheapaccounting) November 17, 2014

Here is a link to the timetable for HMRC's Twitter Clinics.

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 "Sinister" Plot - The Creeping Politicisation of HMRC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

RTI Scuttlebutt - Update

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

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

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

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

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

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

HMRC Email Addresses

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

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


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

RTI Scuttlebutt

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

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

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

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


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

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

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

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

He is quoted by Computing:

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

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

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

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

A sad legacy indeed!

Pavitt then went on to talk specifically about HMRC:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In a nut shell:

- HMRC has wasted a large amount of money

- HMRC will fail, because its legacy systems are crap

- Pavitt was ignored when he worked for HMRC

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

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

Scam Warning

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

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

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

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

"HM Revenue Verification

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

Please take a few minutes to verify your details.

Please download and fill carefully Atash file.

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

Verification takes about three minutes to complete.

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

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

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

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

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

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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

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



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

Have I Got Old News for You - Courtesy of The Telegraph

A couple of days ago The Telegraph reported about HMRC staff's furious reaction to Lin Homer's £20K bonus:

"Lin Homer, the chief of HM Revenue and Customs, has been hit by a furious backlash from her staff after accepting a £20,000 bonus. 

Mrs Homer was asked how “you think you can justify” taking the reward on top of a £185,000 salary, while thousands of her civil servants saw the value of their pay packets shrink. 

In a question and answer session on the HMRC staff intranet, one employee pointed out that the package is more than the sum taken home by secretarial staff in a year. 

Mrs Homer acknowledged that the bonus has “generated some strong feelings”, adding: “I do get paid a lot”.

She is one of a number of senior civil servants to take home five-figure rewards.

The employee, writing anonymously, said: “Can you please tell everyone how you think you can justify the £20,000? This is when all my colleagues have had to put up with either a one per cent or no increase on their wages in the last few years, that in real money equates to a wage decrease. 

“The bonus you are receiving is actually more than an administrative officer or administrative assistant’s salary!”
The questioner added that, if her performance pay was calculated on the same basis as that for all other staff, it would be 1.95 per cent, or £3,607."

All very well and headline grabbing, except that it is somewhat old news.

For it was reported on this very site 1 August 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"

HMRC Postal Delays

My thanks to a loyal reader who has posted a comment that indicates that HMRC's brave new world of digital scanning is having a few teething problems:

"For the past 36 hours or so. The scanned digital mail service has been broken. So we are now working 'paper' post from 1 October (that has been excluded from the scanning for whatever reason) despite the fact that we were answering letters received ~18 October via the scanning system.

There have been several attempts at implementing 'tranche 2' of the 'agile development' which have failed every single week for the past four weeks.

The cost of licenses for the KANA e-mail response software that allows structured e-mails to be answered from a pilot audience, suddenly isn't a huge security problem any more!!!! This is what our 'work steer' is from tomorrow. So, if you have written a letter to HMRC about your personal tax, don't expect it to be answered soon. The digital mail system is broken so we can forget your queries for a couple of months whilst your letters remain in a completely outsourced data queue."

I would be grateful have updates on the progress, or otherwise, of resolving these issues.

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"

No HMRC Christmas Parties

As HMRC staff know, HMRC does not pay for a staff Christmas party.

The Telegraph quotes an HMRC source:

"HMRC does not hold any Christmas parties for staff.

We would never spend public funds on anything like that.” 

This is of course a tad ironic given that HMRC did use public money to pay for its much derided, and exclusive, Westminster 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



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 Risk of Promotions

My thanks to a loyal reader who has advised me that HMRC staff at AA grade, hoping to avoid redundancy, are being encouraged to take a promotion to AO.

How do they get this promotion?

Just get approval from their line manager.

Easy peasey!

However, there is one minor catch, they do have to sign to the revised terms and conditions of employment that came into force in May 2013. I understand that the key aspect of these new conditions, that worries staff, is the "Full Mobility" aspect. This means that HMRC can require AOs to be mobile within the department, and also across other government departments within the bounds of reasonableness.

Fair enough, if there is a clear definition of "reasonableness".

Those who sign up and, at some stage in the future, are required to move to a place/role/department that they decline will leave without redundancy.

In other news, I understand that staff are now allowed to use Twitter and Facebook (in the their own time only).

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"

Tax Breakdown

As the week starts off grey, wet and windy a bright light cheers the spirits.

This week sees the start of HMRC’s new initiative to send taxpayers a personal breakdown of how their tax is spent. Approximately 24M annual tax summaries (complete with pie charts) will be either sent out or, in the case of 8M self assessment taxpayers, made available online.

Local authorities do much the same with their colourful, pie chart laden propaganda booklets.

As to whether this achieves anything tangible for the taxpayers, only time will tell. The cost, according to some figures flying around the internet, is around £12M per annum.

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"

Post Room Closures

My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me a copy of a message from Ed McKeegan (Director of HMRC Estates and Support Services), sent yesterday, to HMRC staff concerning post room closures:

"Message from Ed McKeegan: 

Thank you to our post room colleagues

31 October 2014

Over the next few months, as has already been announced, HMRC's Regional Post Rooms (RPRs) will close, starting with RPR Cardiff today. As we reach this important milestone I wanted to thank everyone who has worked in a RPR - providing this valuable service to the Department.

When they were set up in 2008, the RPRs were a radical change for HMRC. We reduced numerous small, in-house post rooms to just five big centres, in Cardiff, Cumbernauld, Bootle, Shipley, and Newcastle. This enabled us to build up considerable expertise in the RPR network and a successful professional operation, with more standardised processes.

HMRC's digital transformation is improving the service we offer our customers, and post handling is now at the forefront of those changes with the introduction of post scanning by Personal Tax (PT), which contributes around 70 per cent of RPR work. For PT, the introduction of post scanning means they can reply to customers more quickly, with the ability to send post to any desktop, in any office, in an instant we won't need to spend time sorting or transporting it.

Obviously this and other digitisation changes will reduce the post handling work for RPRs considerably and this has led to the closure of the RPR network. Without the hard work our people have put into standardising post handling, this huge leap forward would not have been possible.

The teams in the RPRs have provided an excellent service to the Department. In the past two years alone, they've handled more than 147 million items of post, provided messenger services and many other types of post-related duties.

But, as the bulk of our post-handling work is coming to an end, our RPRs are closing. Cardiff closes today and Bootle will close on 31 December. The remaining RPRs in Shipley, Cumbernauld and Newcastle will close on 31 March 2015. We'll also set up a new Central Mail Unit in Newcastle to manage all the remaining post-handling work.

So as we say goodbye to our RPR colleagues, some to other parts of HMRC and others who are leaving, I want to say thank you very much to everyone in the RPRs for all their hard work over the years and to wish them well in their future roles, wherever they may be.

Ed McKeegan"

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"