HMRC Service Levels Fall Further

 

In the 2023/24 fiscal year, HMRC faced significant challenges in meeting its service standards. Here are some key stats that highlight the agency’s struggles:

1. Telephony Handling Rate:

   • The successful handling rate for helpline callers seeking to speak to an HMRC adviser was 66.4%. This fell well below the departmental target of 85%.
   • Compared to the prior year’s 71.1%, this decline is concerning.
   • Thousands of callers suffered much longer wait periods, with 55,000 calls ‘timed out’ and automatically terminated after 70 minutes on hold.
     

2. Customer Correspondence Timeliness:

   • The proportion of customer correspondence cleared within a 15-day timeframe dropped from 76.3% to 72.7%.
   • Again, this lagged behind the target level of 80%

Basically the service levels are shit.

Anyone remember the Taxpayers' Charter, isn't this meant to help taxpayers have some recourse against HMRC?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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The Charter Is Bollocks!

 

Remember the Taxpayers' Charter?

It seems that it means fuck all to HMRC, if the recent survey of agents is anything to go by!

HMRC has been slammed by tax agents for its poor performance in the latest annual Charter report. The report, which was published on July 18, found that HMRC scored the lowest on the charter standard of "being responsive" with an average score of 2.3 out of 10.

The report also found that HMRC scored poorly on the standards of "making things easy" and "getting things right." Only 45% of agents said they had a positive experience interacting with HMRC, down from 48% in 2021.

The low scores in the Charter report come as no surprise to many tax agents. They have long complained about HMRC's slow and inefficient customer service, as well as its complex and outdated systems.

In a statement, the Association of Tax Technicians (ATT) said that the Charter report "paints a bleak picture of HMRC's customer service." The ATT called on HMRC to "take urgent action" to improve its performance.

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) also expressed concern about HMRC's performance. The CIOT said that the Charter report "highlights the need for HMRC to make significant improvements to its customer service."

HMRC has responded to the criticism by saying that it is "committed to providing the best possible service to taxpayers and their agents." The agency said that it is "taking steps to improve its performance" and that it is "listening to the feedback" from taxpayers and agents.

However, it remains to be seen whether HMRC will be able to turn around its performance. HMRC has a long history of poor customer service, and it will take a significant effort to change its culture.

In the meantime, taxpayers and agents are likely to continue to experience the frustration of dealing with HMRC.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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LITRG's 40 Pillars of Wisdom

 

Given that tax professionals have enough trouble trying to understand tax legislation and deal with HMRC, it is hardly surprising that the hapless taxpayers are completely at sea.

As such, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group have come up with 40 recommendations  Good Guidance: The importance of effective guidance for unrepresented taxpayers, that they hope HMRC will adhere to in order to help the hapless taxpayers who fund the state and its organs. 

Here are the first 10 recommendations, the full report can be accessed via the link above.

Recommendation 1: The level of technical detail offered by a page of guidance should be immediately clear when landing on a page. 

Recommendation 2: HMRC should publish guidelines to help guidance writers decide what matters and circumstances to include and exclude. 

Recommendation 3: HMRC should consider how their user testing can be expanded to determine whether users get to the right answer, not just whether they find guidance easy to use. 

Recommendation 4: HMRC and GDS should review ‘user need’ requirements from the perspective of unrepresented taxpayers, to ensure they do not represent a barrier to effective guidance being published for this group. 

Recommendation 5: The GOV.UK feedback route which offers a reply to the user should be easier to find. 

Recommendation 6: HMRC should design and implement an ongoing process to help proactively identify areas where guidance is missing, and rectify these areas as soon as they are identified. 

Recommendation 7: Whenever any changes or new policies are introduced, there should be a published guidance assessment to ensure that any associated guidance is as complete as possible. 

Recommendation 8: The search function on GOV.UK should be much improved to ensure users are directed to the most appropriate pages, potentially by working with commercial search engines to improve underlying technologies behind it. 

Recommendation 9: Guidance should always clearly state its intended audience and scope. 

Recommendation 10: Where exceptions apply, links should be provided to more information on those exceptions

I wish the LITRG good luck in trying to get HMRC to implement these, given that had HMRC followed its charter the recommendations would in the main be unnecessary!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Have Your Say: HMRC’s Performance Against Charter Standards

 

The ICAEW’s Tax Faculty is joining with other professional bodies to gather feedback on HMRC’s performance against standards in the HMRC Charter. Members are encouraged to complete a survey by the end of February.

The Charter Stakeholder Group has prepared a survey to obtain feedback on HMRC's performance against its Charter. 

The Charter standards are:

• getting things right;
• making things easy;
• being responsive;
• treating you fairly;
• being aware of your personal situation;
• recognising that someone can represent you; and
• keeping your data secure.

The survey results will form a key part of the group’s feedback on HMRC's performance against its Charter. This will be published in HMRC's Charter annual report. The survey should take no more than ten minutes to complete. Input is welcome from individuals, businesses and agents. The survey will run until the end of February.

A list of the Charter Stakeholder Group members and last year’s feedback is available here. ICAEW is represented by Caroline Miskin.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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HMRC's Charter is Broken

 

Loyal readers will recall that HMRC's Charter has been mentioned a few times over the years on this site.

Unsurprisingly, there is quite a gap between its intentions and HMRC's actual performance.

The ICAEW notes that HMRC has struggled to maintain business-as-usual service levels during the coronavirus pandemic and cannot improve services as envisaged in its Charter without more resource.

After gathering feedback from ICAEW members, the Tax Faculty has written to HMRC’s Charter Stakeholder Group outlining concerns about how HMRC performed against its Charter during 2020/21.

Published in November 2020, the Charter outlines what taxpayers can expect when interacting with HMRC. It includes standards of behaviour and values, such as getting things right, making things easy and being responsive.

In ICAEW Rep 43/21, ICAEW acknowledges that HMRC deserves commendation for its work in delivering COVID-19 financial support schemes, but concludes that this has come at the expense of its standard work with the day-to-day experience of taxpayers and agents continuing to deteriorate.

It concludes: 

“HMRC’s performance against the standards in the Charter reflects the limited resources available to it, with the result that it has struggled to provide a satisfactory level of operational business-as-usual performance let alone update its systems to improve online services for taxpayers and agents.

The government has provided some funding, but substantial improvement is likely to take the 10 years envisaged in the tax administration strategy.”

ICAEW warns that poor systems and inadequate training mean that HMRC’s staff are not able to deliver the commitment to “get things right” in the Charter. It highlights data processing in PAYE real time information, self assessment calculations and out of date tax codes as examples of long-standing issues caused by HMRC systems.

Furthermore, the faculty argues: 

“HMRC has considerably more work to do to live up to the Charter standard to make things easy, in particular in relation to online services.”

It cites the trust registration service and the online portal for reporting capital gains, as examples of new services that have not only failed to make tax administration any easier, but actually introduced “many additional problems”.

In examining HMRC’s responsiveness, ICAEW argues that HMRC needs to focus on returning services to pre-pandemic levels. 

“Taxpayers need a commitment from HMRC about when service levels (and helpline hours) will return to target standards, and in particular when priority access might be restored to the agent dedicated line.”

While it struggled to maintain service levels during 2020/21, ICAEW confirms that HMRC has generally been able to meet its commitments to treat taxpayers fairly and with respect, being aware of taxpayers’ personal situations (particularly the impact of COVID-19) and keeping data secure.

On its commitment to recognise that taxpayers can be represented by another, ICAEW concludes that while this is often met, there are: “…instances where gaps in online services for agents and cumbersome agent authorisation processes mean that, in practice, it is often made very difficult to be represented by a third party.”

ICAEW’s response will inform the Charter Stakeholder Group’s evaluation of the extent to which HMRC has demonstrated the standards of behaviour and values in its Charter. The group’s conclusions will be published in an Annual Report later in 2021.

• Read ICAEW Rep 43/21 in full.
• Read HMRC’s Charter

The ACCA also wades in, Glenn Collins (Head of ACCA Technical Advisory)stated:

“A lack of necessary investment risks has damaged the relationship HMRC has with compliant taxpayers and agents.

The people who end up holding the cost and inconvenience are taxpayers and accountants. The cost is being pushed down to those who are causing the least problems for HMRC. You simply have to look at the delays in VAT registration for new businesses, who are looking to pay VAT to the exchequer but can’t get registered.”

These criticisms and suggestions are all very well, but HMRC is not going to fix them anytime soon. In the meantime taxpayers and their agents are screwed, as HMRC has basically ground to juddering halt!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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• Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
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ICAEW Calls For Independent Oversight of HMRC’s Charter

 

The ICAEW has responded to the consultation on draft revisions to HMRC’s Charter, calling for 

- more detail behind the aspirations, 

- specific performance measurement criteria and

- independent oversight by a body such as the National Audit Office.

 
HMRC’s Charter sets out the standard of behaviour and values that HMRC aspires to when interacting with customers (taxpayers).

The consultation addresses the proposed changes to the HMRC Charter, including whether the draft wording sets the right standards for HMRC customer service and whether it covers the areas that are most important to taxpayers. It also addresses how HMRC should monitor its performance against the Charter.

The ICAEW’s view is that the accessible format of the draft should be retained, but should be backed up with more detail on how the aspirations translate into actions with specific measurement criteria against each action. 

 The ICAEW also calls for HMRC to be held more accountable for its performance against the Charter, perhaps through independent review by a body such as the National Audit Office.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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• Attend any meeting with HMRC
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• Premiums are Annual Premiums.
• Premiums are inclusive of 12% IPT. 
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I am a Taxpayer, Not a Customer!

I expect to be called a taxpayer, as that’s what I am. If I’m a customer, I have the choice to take my business elsewhere...

— Rich Bannister (@rugbydick) March 2, 2020

Tax does have to be taxing.

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The Return of Taxpayers' Charter - HMRC's Attempt To Look Busy

Remember The Taxpayers' Charter?

Well HMRC, in an attempt to look busy, want your views on a revised version of it:

Open consultation

HMRC Charter

Published 24 February 2020

From:

HM Revenue & Customs

Summary

We are seeking views on our draft revisions to the HMRC Charter. The charter sets out the standard of behaviour and values that HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) aspires to when interacting with customers – what you can expect from us and what we can expect from you.

This consultation closes at
11:45pm on 15 May 2020

Consultation description

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) deals with the tax and payments affairs of almost every business and individual in the UK. HMRC’s Charter sets out the relationship HMRC wants with its customers and what customers can expect from us.
The HMRC Charter is a legal requirement under the Finance Act 2009. The legislation states that the Charter ‘must include standards of behaviour and values to which Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs will aspire when dealing with people in the exercise of their functions’.
HMRC is committed to improving its customer experience and proposes that HMRC’s Charter is used to define the service and standard of behaviour that customers should expect when interacting with us. It is due to come into effect by the summer of 2020.
You can read the current HMRC Charter.

Ways to respond

These questions may help you structure your feedback, but you can provide general comments or limit your feedback to particular areas:

• do you think the draft charter sets the right standards for HMRC’s service to customers (Part 1)?
• to what extent do you feel the draft charter sets out the areas that are most important to customers when interacting with HMRC?
• how you would like to see HMRC measure and monitor how it is performing against the charter, including how we can best listen to feedback and make improvements (Part 2)?

Documents

Consultation: HMRC Charter

HTML

Ways to respond

Email to:

HMRC.Charter@hmrc.gov.uk

Write to:

HMRC Charter Team,
Customer Insight and Design Directorate,
9th Floor, 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf,
London E14 5AB

Tax does have to be taxing.

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I Laughed Until I Stopped!

You fail every single one of these points in Your Charter @HMRCgovuk but thanks for the best laugh I have had in ages. @ken_frost @pmanley82 @HMRCcustomers @jimharra @MelJStride @PhilipHammondUK @dotasscandal @the_tpa #2019LoanCharge https://t.co/8an1hdWZMT

— WakeupUK (@ShaneWi02261476) June 24, 2019

Tax does have to be taxing.

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HMRC Breaches Charter and Blocks Agents

Here is an extract from the Taxpayers' Charter (remember that?):

“We’ll respect your wish to have someone else deal with us on your behalf, such as an accountant or a relative. To protect your privacy, we’ll only deal with them if they have been authorised to represent you, and we’ll deal with them courteously and professionally.”

All clear and straightforward, yes?

Unfortunately no longer, for you see HMRC is changing the rules of engagement.

AccountingWeb reports, as from 1 May agents who ring HMRC to ask for the pay and tax details of a client will no longer be given that information, even if they are authorised to act. HMRC will instead send the information in a letter to the taxpayer, at his last known address, but they won’t send a copy of this letter to the agent.

HMRC says this change is to reduce call handling costs and to increase security for taxpayers.

All very fine and dandy, except that it breaches the Charter and is clearly designed to stop agents acting on behalf of their clients.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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



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The Standard For Tax Agents

Oblivious to the fact that HMRC is utter shite, HMRC has decided that its energies are best spent on telling others what it expects of them.

As such it has penned a "Standard For Agents":

"HMRC expects high standards that promote tax compliance from anyone who offers to represent or give advice to other taxpayers."

It seems that HMRC has a sense of humour.

Let us put our collective minds together and pen a standard for HMRC, I'll start the ball rolling:

Communications

• We expect HMRC to answer the phone within 30 seconds of dialling.

• We expect HMRC to respond to written correspondence within 5 working days.

• We expect HMRC to accpet and respond to emails.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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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.

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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's Threatening Charter

Remember the tired old HMRC dog, that should have been put down years ago, aka The Taxpayers' Charter (HMRC use the "c" word and refer to it as a "Customer Charter")?

Well it still exists and, apparently, is being redrafted.

CCH Daily reports that HMRC commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct research to test taxpayers’ understanding of a revised version of its Customer Charter.

There have been criticisms that the charter is aggressive and assumes that those reading it will have contravened the tax law, rather than simply checking out their expectations around HMRC service.

The key areas that were most contentious were around whether the revised Charter used consistent language and tone, or created more confusion for customers with its threatening language.

There was criticism of the changing nuances of the language. Certain words stood out as being very different in tone to others, such as the word ‘tough’ with people questioning the language in Right 6, ‘Be tough on people who bend or break the rules’. This was felt to be more informal than language used elsewhere.  One employer commented: ‘I find that a bit threatening. But maybe that’s what they want.’

There were some instances where the language was felt to be ambiguous. For example, some employers did not think Obligation 4 ,‘Keep accurate records and protect your information’ was as precise as they would like it to be. HMRC’s customer insight and knowledge team commented: ‘It made them (customers) question how long they needed to keep accurate records for and what exactly they needed to keep records of.’

The full results are available at HMRC Customer Views on the revised Customer Charter report


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 Charter Committee Deadline Extended

HMRC is currently looking for members of the new Charter Committee.

Remember the Charter?

The original deadline was 3rd November. However, for reasons that are unclear (I assume because HMRC hasn't found enough suitable candidates?), the deadline has been extended to 9th November:

"In order to strengthen the governance of Your Charter, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has created a new Charter Committee.

This will be a sub-committee of the HMRC Board.

Its membership will include HMRC Executives, non-Executives and a range of external stakeholders who represent HMRC’s broad range of customer groups. It will be chaired by the HMRC Board’s Non-Executive Charter champion, Edwina Dunn.

We are looking for four people to join the Charter Committee as external members. We’d like these members to:

• represent HMRC’s broad customer groups
• constructively challenge and advise the Board on fulfilment of the Charter commitments

Those selected will be appointed in a personal capacity. To be successful in the role, individuals will need to have:

• experience relating to HMRC’s work from using our services
• excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with an ability to influence and persuade stakeholders at the highest level within public, private and third sector organisations as well as a clear ability to probe and challenge constructively
• the ability to examine and understand data/information, engage in team discussions to agree a course action and be part of a workable solution
• a strong customer service ethos and be passionate about improving and delivering services to all HMRC customers

Charter Committee members do not receive remuneration but HMRC reimburses expenses reasonably incurred in carrying out their duties such as standard class travel and travel on public transport. Further details will be provided to successful candidates when they take up appointment.

Full application information is contained in the Candidate Pack above.

The deadline for submitting applications is midday Monday 9 November 2015."

Anyone know why the deadline has slipped?

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"

Guilty Until Proven Innocent!

Deleted by request.

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's Charter Annual Report

Loyal readers with long memories may recall that way back in November 2009 HMRC introduced a taxpayers' (HMRC uses the word "customers'") charter.

Moving forward to the present day, on 23 October HMRC published Your Charter Annual Report: April 2013 - March 2014 which analyses HMRC's performance against a series of KPI's.

In summary the Charter lays out rights and obligations:

Your rights — what you can expect from us:
• Respect you
• Help and support you to get things right
• Treat you as honest
• Treat you even-handedly
• Be professional and act with integrity
• Tackle people who deliberately break the rules and challenge those who bend the rules
• Protect your information and respect your privacy
• Accept that someone else can represent you
• Do all we can to keep the cost of dealing with us as low as possible.

Your obligations — what we expect from you:
• Be honest
• Respect our staff
• Take care to get things right

Lin Homer is quoted in the foreword:

"We achieved our best ever performance during 2013-14, exceeding tax and compliance revenues compared to the previous year, while continuing to improve customer service levels and make sustainable cost savings."

She seems very proud, yet further on in her foreword she says that HMRC answered 79% of "customer" calls.

Hardly an outstanding success rate is it?

Ian Young (ICAEW) and Chair of the Charter Advisory Committee then has his say in the document, and is less upbeat:

"..although the performance in five out of the eight rights has improved compared with the previous year, in four of these the scores remain below the equivalent scores from March 2011. This is a cause for concern and the committee will continue to probe the reasons for this and challenge HMRC over their plans for improvement. measures in a process which began in 2009."

He notes in particular that only 41% of agents feel that HMRC does all it can to keep the cost of dealing with it as low as possible, and only 48% of agents feels that HMRC treats them as honest.

I personally feel that the latter is particularly appalling, as it makes it all but impossible for agents to deal with HMRC other than in a defensive or confrontational way.

Young goes on to issue a "prayer" of hope:

"I hope that all the measures that HMRC are putting in place, which are set out in this report, will begin to make a real difference to the results of future surveys."

He doesn't sound very confident that this will come to pass!

Anyhoo, enjoy reading the document and feel free to comment.

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 Customer Service Improves Measurably

HMRC has made measurable improvements in its customer services, since the implementation of a joint initiative with accountancy institutes and other stakeholders.

That's the message from HMRC, sorry for using the "C" word in the above!

Lin Homer (Chairman of the Joint Initiative Steering Group) is quoted in the Joint Initiative on HMRC Service Delivery update:

"I’m really pleased with the improvements we’re putting in train through working in partnership with representatives from professional bodies and charitable organisations on this joint initiative. We’ve collectively resolved some important practical issues and both agents and HMRC staff have benefited from hearing, first hand, about each other’s experiences during visits and workshops."

The scheme was set up following a 2011 recommendation made by the Treasury Select Committee.

AC Mole partner and chair of the ICAEW tax faculty' technical committee, Paul Aplin is quoted by AccountancyAge:

"The initiative is now accumulating a list of real "wins" on service delivery. Tens of thousands of employers avoided penalties last year and will do again this year as a direct result of the work on P35 processes and the extra investment in call centre resource is again a direct result of the discussions we have had through the Initiative.

Perhaps the most important thing though is what underlies the specific items on the list and that is very real engagement on service issues at the highest levels of HMRC."

Errm.....that "extra investment in call centre resource" was but a smoke and mirrors operation redirecting resources from elsewhere. I fail to understand why the ICAEW has fallen for that!

Anyhoo, the next steps as per HMRC are:

"The principle of working 'outside in' and not 'inside out' continues to underpin the project. Work is currently focusing on driving further improvements in post and call handling, and looking at how to define agreed service standards in these areas. Attention is also turning to getting things right first time and to the quality of HMRC’s responses to customers’ queries."

Sorry for being thick, but what does "working outside in" mean?


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"

LITRG Responds To HMRC's ESC A19 Proposals

On Wednesday I wrote about the ICAEW Tax Faculty's objections to the proposed revisions by HMRC of ESC A19.

My thanks to a loyal reader, who reminded me that the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) also recently raised objections to the proposed revisions:

"We welcome the opportunity to respond to the consultation document 'Extra-statutory Concession A19 review'. 

Extra-statutory concession A19 (ESC A19) performs a very important function, serving to provide fairness to taxpayers when HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have made a mistake. In particular, it is often the unrepresented taxpayer who is affected by the problems which lead to claims under ESC A19. 

Any review of the concession must take this fact into account.

We raise at the outset the question of whether the concession needs to be revised in the manner proposed. The revised text will make significant changes to the concession and the circumstances in which it will apply. 

Our response strongly reflects the fact that we do not believe there should be changes to when ESC A19 should apply; rather there should be improvements in its operation.

In order to follow ‘Your Charter’, HMRC should publicise ESC A19 much more widely, as those unrepresented taxpayers to whom it is often relevant are in many cases unaware of the concession’s existence.

We believe strongly that the exceptional circumstances test should be retained, and should be interpreted correctly, according to the current wording of ESC A19."

Yes, whatever happened to the Charter?

To read the full LITRG response, please use the link below:

The LITRG response

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 Taxwise.

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 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"

Whither The Charter?

Last month I wrote that HMRC's Annual Report and Accounts 2011- 12 received a less than enthusiastic response from Margaret Hodge and the NAO, even though Mike Clasper and Lin Homer were upbeat about the achievements of HMRC.

However, within all the hoopla HMRC, PAC and NAO seem to have forgotten something that was once trumpeted as being "important".

To what do I refer?

The Charter published in 2009 .

There appears not to be a single mention of it in the report and accounts.

Does this mean that HMRC no longer see it as being important, or have they simply forgotten about it?


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 Failure To Help

The Low Incomes Tax Reforms Group (LITRG) have recently issued a warning about tax credit changes.

As from 6 April 2012, HMRC will stop working tax credit (WTC) for most couples with children who do not work at least 24 hours a week between them. This includes some who will still be entitled to tax credits from 6 April, because they are covered by one of the exceptions to this rule.

LITRG note that HMRC have failed to tell these claimants that they must contact them by 6 April if one of those exceptions applies to them.

Under the current rules, a couple with children qualify for WTC if one person works at least 16 hours a week. As from 6 April, couples with children will be required to work at least 24 hours between them, with one person working at least 16 hours a week in order to continue to qualify for WTC.

However, there are a number of exceptions to this new requirement. Anyone who qualifies for WTC in another way should continue to receive WTC by working at least 16 hours a week from April 2012. This applies to people who:

• are aged 60 or over, or
• qualify for the disability element of WTC.

There are four other situations where the new 24 hour rule will not apply. One person only needs to work at least 16 hours if the other person is:

• incapacitated (meaning they are in receipt of certain benefits due to ill health),
• an inpatient in hospital,
• in prison, or
• entitled to carer’s allowance.

In November 2011, HMRC wrote to some 280,000 claimants telling them about changes to working tax credit from April 2012.

The letter (TC 1139) fully explained the change for couples, and listed all the exceptions to the new requirement that were known at that time.

However, HMRC left one rather important piece of information off from that letter; namely that for tax credits to continue from 6 April, claimants covered by one of the exceptions must contact HMRC.

Failure to contact HMRC will result in WTC payments being stopped as from 6 April.

LITRG note that HMRC have a duty under their Charter to ‘help and support you get things right’. This includes providing information that helps claimants understand what they have to do and when they have to do it.

In LITRG's view HMRC have failed to do that in this instance, and as a result some of the lowest paid most vulnerable claimants may miss out on payments.


Tax does have to be taxing.

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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"

Ground Hog Day

On 7th September HMRC's Chairman, Mike Clasper, hosted a meeting at 100 Parliament Street to discuss HMRC service delivery.

The meeting had been requested by a number of professional bodies/charities (one could, for want of a better word, call them "stakeholders") including:

- the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales,
- the Chartered Institute of Taxation,
- the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland,
- the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants,
- the Association of Accounting Technicians,
- the Association of Taxation Technicians and the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group,
- Tax Aid
- TaxHelp for Older People.

Why was the meeting called?

The stakeholders wanted to follow through on the recommendation of the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee’s that HMRC should work closely with the professional bodies, tax charities and businesses to improve the end‐to‐end experience of dealing with HMRC.

In addition to Clasper, HMRC sent along some senior managers.

Despite the fact that HMRC are happy that statistics show that in recent months there has been a significant improvement in overall post handling times..really???..HMRC recognise that this improvement is not consistently reflected in the actual experience of taxpayers and agents.

In other words, from the perspective of the stakeholders the statistics are wrong or are (shall we say) measuring the wrong variables.

Anyhoo, on the 14th of September HMRC issued a joint statement which outlines the agreement made as a result of the meeting.

The whole area of post handling and processing will now be looked at in depth, to understand how far the recent improvements are reflected in the actual experience of taxpayers and agents. Additionally, the reasons for the experience and perception of HMRC’s customers being different from that of HMRC managers will also be examined. 

Quote:

"It was agreed that as a first stage, work should be taken forward quickly and on three fronts:

• Post processing and handling should be looked at in detail to establish where problems still exist and how they can be resolved (and HMRC’s performance measures reviewed where necessary to ensure that they are credible and effective). This work will be complemented by a review of the following processes where it is believed improvements can be made: non Self Assessment repayment claims, automated PAYE coding notices and practical issues relating to deceased estates.

• A number of agents and charity representatives will spend time with HMRC’s front line service delivery teams to look at processes in detail from a customer perspective and make recommendations as appropriate.

• HMRC will carry out structured visits to the offices of a number of practitioners and charities to gain an in depth understanding of service delivery as seen from a customer perspective.

The intention is to pursue this initiative within a very stringent timeframe to obtain tangible fast track results with a view to facilitating quick resolution in a number of areas. The joint initiative will commence on 3 October and progress on the initial three work streams will be reviewed by 30 November.

Mike Clasper said:

'Tax agents along with the charity and voluntary sector are vitally important customer and stakeholder groups for HMRC and I welcome their offer to work with us so we can better understand how to improve. We know that they and their clients are seriously impacted when we get things wrong and we are determined to deliver a better service.

We need to get a better understanding of the interaction of our customers and stakeholders with HMRC and of their experiences in resolving tax issues. Working with agent colleagues inside and outside HMRC will provide that knowledge and lead to better services for all of our customers.'
 
The professional bodies and tax charities said:

'We and HMRC are working very closely together to try to resolve a number of service delivery issues. This exercise is emphatically not a ‘talking shop’ and where appropriate we intend to make public the results and the action to be taken from the work streams we have embarked on.'"


The publication of the joint statement gave rise to an optimistic statement from Michael Izza (CEO of the ICAEW) on his blog:

"HMRC has made similar promises in the past to tackle service issues yet have failed to deliver. 

I believe this time will be different. 

Thanks in no small part to the role played by our Tax Faculty and in particular, Paul Aplin, chair of its technical committee, we now have a partnership with HMRC and a very public commitment from the very top to a way forward which will help turn things around."

I do not wish to discredit Michael's viewpoint and optimism.

However, having run this site for many years I have a feeling of deja vu wrt the promises being made and a feeling that we are now in the endgame wrt the current structure/leadership of HMRC.

Reading between the lines of the statement (re the comments about perceptions) I get the feeling that HMRC do not want to believe that there is a service issue, and that this will be used to try to discredit "stakeholder" perceptions of poor service.


Additionally, from my cynical ("tired old eyes") perspective, even if the promises are genuine given the state of HMRC I don't see that they will/can be fulfilled.

Given that I am so cynical, and therefore partisan in my viewpoint, I would really value hearing the viewpoints of my loyal readers (especially those who work within HMRC) as to the likelihood of this actually delivering what it promises to deliver.

BTW, whatever happened to the Charter?

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"