HMRC Takes The Protection of Customer Data Extremely Seriously and Has a Strong Security Culture!

As per The Register:

"Almost 1,500 software developers registered to use the UK taxman's sandbox or API platform have had their email addresses blabbed in a mass mailing.

The snafu happened on Friday afternoon, when an email about the HMRC Developer Hub was accidentally sent with users' addresses visible in the CC field.

The email, with the subject line "API Platform update", was sent by the software developer support team at 1604 GMT.

"Please note the HMRC Developer Hub will remain shuttered over the weekend to allow us to continue testing the service. The Developer Sandbox for testing remains available. The API Platform is working as expected," the seemingly innocent email stated.

However, about an hour later, someone must have pointed out the mistake, and the team issued a recall for the message, which meant the same group received another email with all 1,455 or so email addresses cc'd in.

At 1809, a third email – this time blind-copying in the list – was sent to apologise for the breach.
"HMRC's policy is always to protect customer data, and we take this responsibility very seriously," the email said.

"Unfortunately, in a recent email, a mistake was made and your email address may have been shared with other recipients.

"I wish to apologise for this error and for any distress this may have caused."

As the Reg reader who alerted us to the cock-up observed, this kind of error is easily made, especially when the time is ticking away to beer o'clock.

An HMRC spokesperson said: "HMRC takes the protection of customer data extremely seriously and has a strong security culture.

"We can confirm that this matter was immediately reported through our internal incident reporting process and will be fully reviewed. We have contacted the software developers affected to alert them and to apologise."

It's enough to make you weep!

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 Published Confidential Details On Web Without Permission

Oh dear it seems that private details of a number of childminders, including home addresses, have been published in error on HMRC’s Childcare Service website.

The details, which have since been removed from the website (which providers and parents must access for Tax-Free Childcare and the 30 hours) appeared on its 'Search for a Childcare Provider' page, despite the fact childminders had not given their permission for the data to be published.

HMRC removed the facility from their website to correct the error, following complaints from affected childminders.

A spokesperson for HMRC is quoted by NurseryWorld:

"We have temporarily closed the childcare provider checker, as there was an issue with the system. Our suppliers – NS&I and Atos – are working to rectify this and will re-open the childcare provider checker once it is working as it should. Parents and providers can continue to apply through the service."

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, was unimpressed:

"It is completely unacceptable that confidential childminder data, including details of home addresses, was published on the Childcare Service website, and those affected are absolutely right to be angry at this breach of privacy.

While we recognise that HMRC is now working to resolve this issue, it never should have happened in the first place, and it certainly shouldn’t have taken so long for HMRC to finally acknowledge that something had gone seriously wrong.

With Tax-Free Childcare already in effect, and just two months until the roll-out of the 30-hour offer, we are still receiving regular reports of problems with the Childcare Service website from both parents and providers. This simply isn’t good enough. Government needs to get a grip on this policy and fast, and so we hope HMRC will be looking to review and address these ongoing issues as a matter of priority."

I thought HMRC always claimed that it zealously protected taxpayers' privacy??

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 Snoopers' Charter

Under the The Investigatory Powers Bill (recently approved by the House of Lords) internet providers will be forced to keep a full record of every site that each one of its customers has visited.

Amongst the plethora of government departments that then will be able to snoop on our activities is HMRC.

Consumers’ internet connections records (ICRs) will be kept for 12 months and law enforcement agencies will be allowed to access them during that period, giving them the ability to check if a suspect has accessed illegal services online.

Doubtless any snooping by HMRC will be perfectly legitimate etc. However, the risk of hacking is high.

James Blessing, chairman of the Internet Service Providers' Association, is quoted in economia:

“It only takes one bad actor to go in there and get the entire database.

You can try every conceivable thing in the entire world to [protect it] but somebody will still outsmart you.”

Let's see how this all works out then!

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 Trawls The Net

As I have noted several times before on this site, HMRC are keen to identify people who are trading (goods and services) on the internet but not declaring their profits.

As such it should come as no surprise to learn that HMRC intend to up their game wrt collecting data on who is trading but not declaring that they are trading. HMRC are of the view that the hidden economy of internet trading could be worth £5.9BN in uncollected tax each year.

HMRC has launched a consultation on extending its powers to collect extra data from firms and individuals.

"Data can be particularly powerful when it is collected from third parties who facilitate trade, either between businesses, or between businesses and consumers.

This is because they can provide information in bulk about the activity of large numbers of traders, and because third party data can be used as an independent check against the data that taxpayers themselves report to HMRC."

The extended powers would affect businesses acting as intermediaries or providing electronic payment services.

"It is important that the data - gathering powers are proportionate. This means that the administrative burden placed on the intermediary business when preparing and providing the data must be commensurate with the benefit from using the information obtained. HMRC expect that in the scenarios described in this consultation document the administrative burden will be relatively small. HMRC would provide guidance and give support to ease the process."

In theory whatever happens in the future, wrt new payment methods will be covered by the legislation:

"HMRC propose s that the legislation is “future - proofed” so similar data can be requested from new business models as they emerge."

Theoretically HMRC will not target individuals who sell personal possessions, only businesses that fail to pay tax owed.

Those who were tax compliant "should see little or no impact".

The consultation runs until 14 October.

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"

Building Our Future - Sod Off

My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me his impressions of HMRC's Building Our Future event that he attended recently.

Seemingly it was, and I quote here:

"Total crap"

Three directors, one from personal tax, attended and read from hastily prepared scripts. I am advised that one of the directors seemed really bored totally out of his wits.

The conference room was half empty, some of the tables were empty and deserted.

Those who are not willing to share in HMRC's 2020 vision will not have a future at HMRC.

Sadly this "sod off" mantra also seems to apply to the taxpayers, eg pensioners and other vulnerable groups, who are unable to use the internet for their taxes and interactions with HMRC.

The future is firmly in front of us!

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"

Virus Risk

HMRC has 85,784 PCs, of which 85,268 are moving off Windows XP and 58,631 are ditching Internet Explorer 6.

 

As from 8th April this will present a security weakness, as Microsoft will stop offering free support for XP and will no longer provide any protection to block malicious codes and potential hacks that steal users' data. As from then Microsoft will charge an outlandish £122 per desktop for year one, £244 for year two and £490 for year three.

Suffice to say HMRC will not be paying for this service.

However, not to worry, an HMRC spokesperson is quoted by the Guardian:

"HMRC takes security extremely seriously and has many controls in place to guard against online threats. HMRC is already upgrading our IT software and our systems will remain secure whilst this is happening." 

No problem then, except for the fact that the upgarde from XP and Windows 6 won't be completed by April!

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"

Identifying Tax Evasion Using Street View

As has been reported sometime ago HMRC make use of the internet and social networking sites to help identify possible tax evasion.

Shout99 notes that even Google Street View is being used by HMRC to identify lifestyles beyond those which equate to the income reported by suspected tax evaders.

However, Street View is not "real time" and what it shows may be misinterpreted. UHY Hacker Young pointed to an example of a taxpayer being wrongly identified as sending his/her children to a private school, because of a Street View image showing his fence with a poster advertising the school's fete. It transpired that the poster was in fact on the neighbour's fence.

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 Online Merger

As loyal readers know, things are changing at HMRC as it strives to become a lean mean efficient tax collecting machine.

One such change is the merger of HMRC's website (online presence) with the new gov.uk site by March 2013.

Unfortunately, this merger may not be such a positive step forward.

For why?

It seems that since its launch, in the last fortnight, gov.uk has been inundated with criticism. Economia reports that the gov.uk site has been:

"attacked as a “travesty”, a “fiasco” and a “disaster” by critics on the UK Business Forums site. 

Critics say the errors are so elementary, people who rely on the information on the site could end up being charged penalties by HMRC, or fined for failure to buy compulsory insurance."

HMRC are undeterred, and have told Economia:

“HMRC’s website as well as other government departments and a handful of agencies / non-departmental public bodies will migrate to the new GOV.UK platform, in line with Cabinet Office requirements.
The plan for these websites is for corporate content and most of the detailed guidance to be on gov.uk by March 2013, with the remainder moved by December 2013.

HMRC has worked closely with the Government Digital Service (GDS) towards the launch of gov.uk, including delivering the smooth transition of businesslink.gov.uk, for which HMRC have been responsible since 2007-08. We continue to work with GDS to transfer additional material across in later phases.”

Let's see how this goes then!

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"

Communicating With HMRC

My thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me a wee note the other day, about the problems that he had been having trying to obtain a letter of fiscal residency from HMRC:

"I've been trying to get a Letter of Fiscal Residency for the last couple of months. 

No-one answers the phone, a registered letter has not been answered in three weeks...the usual great service. So, I found a new online service that lets one apply for the fiscal residency confirmation online. 

Great, I thought. 

Filled in the form, pressed send, and got the following auto reply: 

'Thank you for your application for a certificate of residence. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) aim to deal with the majority of applications within 15 working days and you should receive a reply within this timescale...'

Eight days later and I noticed I'd received a reply. 

Great! 

Not great:
'Please note that the e-mail address you have used is not for direct customer enquiries. Your e-mail has not been read by HMRC staff and will not be responded to. 

Please visit our website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk for ways to contact us. 

This is an automated response. 

Please do not reply to this email as your email will be deleted.'"

Can anyone cast some light on the rather bizarre response from HMRC?

My loyal reader and I assume that the form (found here) is being misdirected to the wrong internal email account in HMRC (or that whoever receives it simply does not read it).

For those of you who may also be seeking a letter of fiscal residency, my loyal reader eventually found a backdoor via which to ask for one. He attached a note to his online tax return, and received a reply today from the 'eTeam' confirming that his request had been received and the certificate had been issued on the 11th.

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"

Communicating With HMRC - Things Don't Always Get Better!

My thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me this note the other day, in which he vented his spleen about the difficulties of communicating with HMRC:

"2012 client tax return submitted on 1st May with a claim for repayment of just over £10,000. 

Client asked when he might get this. 

Today 15 May I called the agents' dedicated line, as the HMRC website shows the refund as due and invites me to claim it! 

The officer I spoke to said, 'oh it's not letting me claim it either'. 

I said 'it's already been claimed on the tax return'. 

She is now emailing the 'back' office and asking them why the refund has not been made. They are going to ring me. 

I asked what the call-back time is. 

'Up to three weeks'. 

I expected 3-5 working days but sheeesh!!! 

NOTHING is getting better."

Contrary to the song, things don't always get better!

I would be interested to hear if a three week call back time the norm now?

Have other people had to wait longer?

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 and The Internet

Acas have published a report (Workplaces and Social Networking) about HMRC's online and social media strategy.

It looked at how BT and HRMC tackles the issues relating to the net, and what staff may/may not do during work time. Interviews were carried out with an HMRC HR adviser, the head of HMRC’s digital strategy and a trade union representative involved in data security issues in May 2011. Oddly enough though no "ordinary" members of staff were interviewed.

Here are a few extracts relating to HMRC:

"Only around 50% of employees at HMRC currently have internet access, although this is about to change, as the organisation is in the process of rolling out internet access to all employees as part of the process of centralising the HR functions of civil service departments. 

HMRC also has a policy on acceptable use of the internet, which, as with the BT policy, blocks certain websites. 

HMRC employees are not prohibited from using the internet, but the policy states that they should do this in their own time, i.e. during breaks. HMRC, as an organisation that holds a large amount of sensitive data about the population, needs to have extremely tight data security procedures in place, and from this perspective, it feels that it needs to control the types of sites that employees can access from the organisation’s IT system.


HMRC said that it did not consider employees’ social media profiles during 

HMRC has a forum in place, where employees can write about issues that are bothering them.and employees are permitted to post comments on it during work time. The organisation keeps an eye on the threads and will respond with explanation or clarification where it deems necessary.

HMRC is still developing its digital engagement strategy and will decide on the precise details at some point in the future. The priority for the organisation at this stage was to put into place guidance for social networking sites that is clear and understandable to employees.

The fact that internet access was being rolled out to all employees was a catalyst for developing guidance on the use of social networking sites, and the issue was further brought to prominence by a couple of high-profile incidents picked up by the media of HMRC employees using social networking sites.

'We had concerns within HR about social media and how staff were using it. We’ve had misconduct cases involving social media, although we’ve handled it quite well. We decided in HR that we needed to do something.'


HMRC, the policy was developed in conjunction with the trade unions. In addition, before the policy was finalised, it was posted up internally in bulletin boards for employees to see and comment upon.
 
HMRC feels that this is the right way to go about policy formulation, as it will help to ensure that employees can have an input into the policy, which in turn will increase overall acceptance and awareness. 

HRMC obtained useful feedback from this exercise, particularly on the structure and phrasing/language used. 

HMRC also carried out an internal survey to check employees’ knowledge about social networking sites, in order to help it to pitch the guidance correctly.


'Essentially, what we did was to bring existing Conduct policies together. The only thing that was new was a policy to discourage people from associating HMRC privately with their social media – better not to do it.

The rest of it was essentially conduct, communication and security policy. Essentially, we’re saying that you should behave online as you do offline. We’ve just reminded people about existing policy and looked at it in the light of social media.'


HMRC does not give any specific training to line managers on how they should handle these
issues, largely because most of the issues that are likely to arise would come under the organisation’s conduct policy, on which managers do receive training.

'Managers can’t be expected to know everything about everything, but I would hope that if there was a problem to do with social networking, the manager would look into what this meant. The issue would basically be to do with the disciplinary code.' Trade union representative, HMRC


HMRC does not look at the Facebook or other social networking sites of its employees as a matter of course (Ken says "errmm it looks at this one though;)"), as it does not want to prescribe how employees should behave in their private life. For the organisation, the main and overarching
issue is that employees do not behave in such a way as to bring the organisation into disrepute. Its guidance recommends that employees do not disclose their status as an HMRC employee on any social media site and that they should be careful about disclosing information about their colleagues. HMRC initially thought about specifying personal sites in their guidance, but after discussions with trade unions, decided not to.

'When we were drawing up our guidance, we thought about including general good practice on the use of private personal sites. It’s quite easy to stray into being prescriptive. However, trade unions had a different point of view and it’s of value to have different views around to get an appropriate balance.' HR adviser, HMRC

'You have to start from a position of trust – people need to be trusted not to be stupid with it. We felt very strongly that HMRC couldn’t dictate to employees what they did in their private lives. There has to be that glass wall between the two. Equally, however, it would be wrong for an employee to put privileged information on their Facebook site. We have access to private data in our jobs and we have to respect that when on our social networking sites.'

'If a person rang in sick and then changed their status on Facebook to at Alton Towers, that would obviously be an issue, but we haven’t seen anything like that. Trade union representative, HMRC"

My question to my loyal readers (specifically HMRC staff) is simple, does this reflect reality?


Tax does have to be taxing.

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

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

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

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

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

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

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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

The Robots Are Coming

The Guardian reports that HMRC are going to use robots (internet bots) to hunt down tax evaders.

The bots will scour the net to find people who are trading without telling HMRC that they are trading/earning an income.

Used in conjunction with HMRC's Connect IT system, HMRC will be able to identify anomalies between such elements as bank interest, property income and lifestyle indicators.

Apparently, before launching the bots, HMRC is seeking input from interested parties.

Well all of this sounds very "nice", if it works and is not used as an excuse to "stiff" people with overinflated tax bills on the pretext of an erroneous red flag from a bot.

My questions to those who work for HMRC;

- Will this actually work as it is claimed "on the tin"?

- What will HMRC do with all the data it collects on innocent people etc, that is not relevant to a specific tax evasion case?

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"

Security Matters - FAQ

Question:

When is a secure email address not secure?

Answer:

When it is assigned to HMRC

My thanks to the loyal readers (see comments below) who highlighted this issue.

Loyal Reader #1

"I spoke to an Inspector the other day and asked for her gsi e-mail address, only to be told that she couldn't correspond by e-mail "for security reasons". As I remember, "gsi" stands for Government Secure Internet. Form your own conclusions. "

Loyal Reader #2

"I have a gsi address also and have been told that because of data security issues I am not allowed to receive external emails from the public.
This is after we were told to reduce the amount that is printed - when I suggested sending it by email I was told it wasn't a secure method of communication - go figure ..... "

Tax does have to be taxing.

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

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

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

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

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

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

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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

HMRC Joins Twitter

HMRC is now trialing Twitter.

@HMRCgovuk

A happy and peaceful New Year to all my loyal readers.

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"

Spies 'R Us

Public Service reports that the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and GCHQ are working on a new network to collaborate with other agencies.

It seems that a recent initiative (SCOPE phase two), which was designed to deliver intelligence to law enforcement, government departments and agencies, has failed.

However, the government is never afraid to have another go at improving its spying capabilities. As such a new initiative has been launched.

Collaboration in the Intelligence Community (CLiC) is intended to be a "low-risk, inexpensive approach".

Former chief of SIS, Sir John Scarlett, is quoted:

"CLiC is designed to shore up... some of the capability that SCOPE 2 would have given us... We are doing really quite well on this more modest CLiC programme, which is not being run out of the Cabinet Office, it is being run out of SIS and GCHQ... and it will be of community-wide value when it is delivered."

What has this got to do with HMRC? I hear you ask.

Well, guess which agency will be the first to benefit from CLiC?

Yes, that's right, HMRC!

On the assumption that all things go according to plan, HMRC will be able to receive Top Secret intelligence and communicate securely via email.

Seemingly the improbably named secure messaging system STRAP3A (do a Google of images for this, and you come up with some quite unusual pictures) will let GCHQ, SIS, MI5, the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Office (FCO), the Cabinet Office, the Home Office et al exchange Top Secret information by April.

Needless to say, this being secret, the costs and contractor involved are all "hush hush". However, it seems that HMRC are footing part of the bill.

Let us trust that the information shared is better handled than other information that government agencies are prone to lose.

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"

System Weakness

Concept Business Systems Ltd have advised me that they have identified a system weakness, within the HMRC website, that might be exploited by hackers.

Seemingly the "vulnerability allows hackers to traverse directories on the server and include files which wouldn't ordinarily be available".

They go on to say:

"The sub-domain in this PoC (Proof of Concept) may not contain any information which puts tax-payers at risk. However, it may contain sensitive database information which could pose a significant security risk to everyone involved.

Either way, a hacker with virtually open-access to a supposedly secure system can only lead to further problems."

Any IT experts out there care to comment on this, eg how serious is this weakness?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Gone Phishing

Those of you who file your tax returns online, or who have received emails from an organisation claiming to be "HMRC", need to be aware that there is in fact a fake HMRC website in cyberspace that has been set up to "phish" bank details from the unwary.

The fake site uses the same graphics, fonts and styling as HMRC's site and gathers web users' names, addresses and credit card details.

The fake then redirects people to the real HMRC website.

The "phishing" emails claim that HMRC has conducted a review of the person's tax affairs, and has found that they are due a rebate of £70.

Under no circumstances reply to these emails, or click on the link.

HMRC will never send emails telling you that you have a rebate inviting you to verify your bank details on line.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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 Secret VAT Increase

Gordon "Smiler" Brown and his Darling Chancellor were somewhat humiliated yesterday, when it emerged that they had been planning to increase VAT to 18.5% in 2011.

This embarrassing plan was revealed when a document signed by Stephen Timms, a junior Treasury Minister, was published on a government website. The hard copy version, also signed by Timms, shows no VAT rate of 18.5%.

The web version has now been removed.

Now here is where the politicians seek to cover their shame. Treasury minister Angela Eagle said that the publication had been:

"..a pure administrative error on the part of HM Revenue and Customs.

For anyone to think it is anything else is complete scaremongering and opportunism of the worst sort."

HMRC stated (as per the Guardian) that the VAT increase had been a fully worked-up option, that had been ditched at the last moment in favour of the 45% tax rate on those earning more than £150,000.

I am of the view that the buck should stop with the people who claim to be in charge of HMRC. Given that these plans were discussed at Treasury level, and signed off by a Treasury Minister, then the responsibility for the dissemination of the "correct" plans lies with the Treasury.

This is not an HMRC cock up, but a Treasury cock up; for Eagle and her colleagues to "rat out" HMRC in this way is a pretty lousy trick. However, many politicians are pretty lousy anyway.

Doubtless some poor sap in HMRC will be ritually sacrificed to protect the "honour" of the Treasury.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Guide To Using The Internet

Today's Times quotes HMRC:

"HMRC's priority is to allow staff access to websites which allow them to do their jobs. This site does not fall into that category." says a spokesman sternly.

HMRC, like many other organisations, appears to have a little trouble accepting the fact that in the 21st century the internet (for all its good and bad points) is as much a part of our lives as eg phones.

To some extent I too have sympathy with organisations that struggle with allowing unlimited access to the net. There is a very real danger that staff could spend the entire day on Facebook etc, without putting quill to parchment.

However, it is in the interests of organisations (including HMRC), and their employees, that individual members of staff are fully conversant with technological innovations such as the internet and email.

Therefore organisations that handle the net in a sensible manner, and ensure that staff understand some basic do's and don't with regard to its usage, should find that allowing access does not result in a reduction of productivity and will in fact improve staff morale.

The fundamental principle being that if you treat staff as responsible adults, they will behave as responsible adults.

Here is a non prescriptive, pro forma guideline, that companies (even HMRC) could incorporate into their codes of conduct. I assume HMRC has a code of conduct for staff?

Guideline

This guideline is intended to form part of a company's code of conduct. As such breaches of this guideline would constitute a breach of the code, and shall constitute a notifiable event; requiring registration and action (as deemed appropriate) by the management responsible for implementation of the code.

The company expects that staff will use the internet, email and telephone facilities in a responsible manner. The use of these facilities is encouraged, where the use is for business purposes and supports the goals and objectives of the company.

However, the company expects the following general principles to be adhered to:

• The above systems are company assets; and as such should be used for business purposes. However, personal use of the internet may take place during non work time (eg lunch breaks etc) so long as it does not interfere with an employee's performance and does not contravene the other rules laid out below.



• It is in the interests of the company, and its employees, that individual members of staff are fully conversant with technological innovations such as the internet.



• A cost conscious approach should be adopted by users when determining which facility to use, and when to use it, eg email is less expensive than a phone call.



• The use of the facilities to access/distribute sexual and illegal material is strictly prohibited.



• Employees shall not allow others (including family members) to use the facilities.



• Employees shall abide by the principle of privacy with regard to other individuals' facilities, eg unless the owner has given permission, colleagues' email boxes shall not be read.



• The nature of the internet is such that it accessible to all. Therefore, information retrieved from the internet, intended to be used for decision making purposes, should be validated for authenticity before being used.



• It is a violation of company policy for any employee, including system administrator (other than for system maintenance) to access information of the system without the employee's knowledge. However, access without the employee's knowledge may occur where permission has been granted by senior management when they have taken legal advice.



• The company retains the right to access and disclose information in these systems in order to protect its interests, or when required to by law. Accordingly, employees should not have any expectation of privacy regarding the use of these systems and information stored therein.



• Employees who inadvertently access information or messages that are in breach of the above should notify their senior line manager.

Treat your staff as responsible adults, and they will act as responsible adults.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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"

Scottish Cuts

HMRC Derby (re yesterday's article) is not alone in facing government and senior HMRC management plans for restructuring.

There are also plans for many other offices to be axed, eg 11 Revenue and Customs offices employing 171 staff across north and north-east Scotland.

Mary Hay, who is the HMRC director responsible for the programme, is quoted in The Press and Journal:

"By consolidating work in fewer locations we will be able to work more efficiently and so improve customer service as well as providing better value for money."

The consultation paper said that "where feasible" staff will be offered relocation, but overall 600 out of 1,800 jobs across Scotland will be lost.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of PCS, the main union involved, has a view that does not chime with HMRC senior management claiming that it was "a crude drive to slash jobs and cut costs which will leave HMRC unable to deliver quality public services.

Access to tax advice in communities across the UK will be damaged by these proposals hitting businesses and the public, in rural towns and villages, as well as taking quality jobs out of local communities."

The hit list of offices includes Elgin, Longamn House, Invereness, Grangemouth Customs House, Wick, Buckie, Falkirk, Stirling, Dunoon, Perth and Oban.

An HMRC spokeswoman said:

"Many of our customers now prefer to deal with us by telephone or the internet at a time of their choosing."

That may not be entirely true given the meltdown of the online filing system this year at a critical moment, and the less than high quality phone service provided by HMRC.

The proposals have not gone down well with the politicians in Scotland.

First Minister Alex Salmond said that the cuts amounted to "centralisation totally out of control".

Argyll and Bute Liberal Democrat MP Alan Reid said:

"It is an outrage that the three tax offices in my constituency are all to close and local people will have to travel a hundred miles or so to Glasgow or Inverness for face-to-face advice."

Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Lib Dem MP John Thurso said he was "steaming with rage at the deceitful and underhand way in which HMRC have acted".

It seems that HMRC senior management and the government have something of a credibility problem wrt their restructuring plans. They claim that they will improve efficiency and reduce costs. However, neither the staff nor the "customers" (taxpayers to you and I) believe them.

Why do people not believe HMRC senior management?

• Could it be that the senior HMRC management is simply not up to the job of managing the hotch potch that HMRC has become, since it was created from Customs and the Revenue?



• Could it be that the piles of unopened post, going back months, sitting in HMRC offices across the country indicates that there are no efficiency savings and that HMRC is in meltdown?



• Could it be that the datagate fiasco is merely the tip of the iceberg of an organisation on the brink of collapse?



• Could it be that HMRC senior management are simply not good at their jobs?



• Could it be that the plummeting morale within HMRC indicates that senior management do not know or understand how to manage change of this nature?

I most definitely think so!

The government claims that it wants to improve the efficiency, and reduce the costs of HMRC. To my view this is not the way to go about it.

The most effective means of improving efficiency and reducing costs would be for a massive simplification of the tax system.

Unfortunately, as long as Brown is PM this will never happen; Brown does not do "simple".

Tax does have to be taxing.

The New Statesman, Britain's leading political magazine is delighted to announce that HMRC Is Shite has been nominated for a New Media Award in the category of Campaign For Change. The campaign for change award will go to the individual or organisation that has most effectively influenced opinions and behaviour through the use of new media technology. The winner of this award will champion a cause and provide information and tools to instigate change.

The full press release can be downloaded here.

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"