GOV.UK Form Over Substance

Those of you who are less than satisfied with the quality of HMRC's new website hosted on GOV.UK (and your numbers are legion) may be interested to see what this exercise in "form over substance" has cost.

AccountingWeb, having submitted a freedom of information (FOI) request to HMRC about the actual and budgeted costs of the project have managed to elicit some numbers.

The budgeted costs in May 2014 for elements of the transition that weren't "business as usual" work were estimated at £942,000. However, actual costs as at the end of the project in March 2015 are expected to be £40,000 more.

Actual costs were provided under FOI up to December 2014 for HMRC-invoiced figures and did not include Government Digital Service (GDS) costs unless specifically invoiced to the Revenue. The further costs to March 2015 were ongoing costs above normal activities up to project closure.

Budgeted and actual figures spent on the project were:

• £153,000 on three permanent members of staff: head of web transition, senior project manager and project support.
• £60,000 budgeted for contractors to design the web content; £35,000 was spent.
• Travel and subsistence costs for staff were £50,000 less than the £105,000 budgeted for.
• Budgeted costs for IT costs, including content changes, IT equipment for mobile working, network/infrastructure information requests and API development were £574,000. 
• The actual IT amounted to £737,000 - £640,000 by the end of December, with a further £97,000 to be invoiced by March. This included a oneoff £500,000 payment to GDS, for "HMRC specific related migration and content design work" which, according to the FOI, wasn't budgeted for.
• In addition, around £50,000 was budgeted for web content migration training, but only £2,000 was actually spent on this.

The government claimed HMRC’s transition from "switching off old systems" will save £164,000 in its first year up to April 2016.

After this the savings are expected to rise to £202,000 in each year thereafter - a 22% saving on non staff-related web hosting costs in 2014/15. This is against an "assumed 15% saving Cabinet Office expected would be made".

This means it may take HMRC until around 2020 to recoup the total cost of the project.


Costs issues aside, the key issue that annoys many is that the contents of the site is simply not up to snuff.

Form over substance wins every time with politicians!

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.

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Beware Copycat Websites

Beware the ongoing scam perpetrated by "copycat" tax return websites that charge people money for ordering tax documents that can be obtained for free from the official HMRC site.

People who have, rather unwisely, parted with cash have now attempted to reclaim their money from sites such as Taxreturngateway.com.

 

The Telegraph has heard from 100 victims, each of whom believed, wrongly, that Taxreturngateway was linked to the Government.

It was similar in design to the government, website hmrc.gov.uk, but merely enabled users to order official documents for a "service fee" of up to £1,000.

Some people have managed to get their money back, others haven't.

These people have been duped because they were naive, not net savvy and had little understanding of the tax system (the latter being something that applies to most of the UK's population).

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"

Clasper Joins Serco

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

By happenstance HMRC paid Serco £42.6M in 2011/12 for one year of website development and support.

£43M for a website!

Easy money!

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"

Copycat Site Shuts

In January I wrote about the dangers of paying fees to websites that claim to check and file your return with HMRC, aka copycat websites.

One such site (taxreturngateway.com) that charged people £500 to file tax returns online with HMRC, a process that is free if done directly with HMRC, has temporarily been suspended.

It seems that, according to the Telegraph, some people are claiming to have been "misled" into believing the site was a "genuine" government tax portal by its design.

 

Unsurprisingly they have been denied refunds by Taxreturngateway.com, even if they subsequently filed through official channels. 

 

A statement on company’s website said:

“Due to overwhelming customer demand for our service and the close proximity to the January 31st Self-Assessment deadline, we have taken the decision to suspend our Self-Assessment Tax Return Submission service to new clients at this time. This decision has been made to ensure that we deliver the highest level and quality of service to our existing clients.”

Strictly speaking the site did not break the law, but in effect duped the gullible into spending money on a process that is in fact free.

A spokesman for Trading Standards said:

“In principle, a practice such as this is not illegal. Many businesses provide a service that consumers could carry out themselves relatively easily. We have looked at this particular trader's website site, and they do state that they are not connected to or affiliated with HMRC, DWP or any other official government body so there is very little that Trading Standards can do in this instance.”

A spokesman for HMRC said:

“Whilst people are entirely free to employ a tax return agent, HMRC does not sanction or in any way approve such sites, and we will take firm action against any websites that suggest otherwise. HMRC provides comprehensive help and guidance through our website and contact centres entirely free of charge."

Who4 owns Taxreturngateway.com, by happenstance it runs a number of copycat websites; where customers are charged £172 for passports that would normally cost £72.50 and £29 for Ehic cards, which are issued free by the NHS.


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"

Summer Holiday? - UPDATED

My thanks to a loyal reader who has pointed out that the last entry on HMRC's "What's New" page on the HMRC website is dated 13 July (well over a month ago).

Does this mean that nothing new at all has occurred during this period, or that the department that updates this page is on a protracted holiday?

Factoid: Our "illustrious" elected representatives are currently on a 47 day break.

UPDATE

Folks, proof positive that HMRC read this site. Since posting this morning that there were no updates since 13 July (and yes, I did check that myself), HMRC have now updated their "What's New" page!

Hoozah!

Tax does have to be taxing.



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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"

WTF!

My thanks to loyal reader Tony Sutton, who alerted me to an article he wrote for Deaf4Life about the problems he had trying to get a claim pack from HMRC yesterday.

Here is the article in full:

"Right, this is the actual event of what has happened today (Monday 22nd August 2010) of my trip to the HMRC Office in Norwich which ended with almost bad experience for me.

I needed to make a claim on the HMRC website, but at the moment, it's not available to do it online as the site says "These online services are still temporarily closed".

And the website says that I can pick up the paperwork at either HMRC Enquiry Centre or Jobcentre Plus Office.

After looking up the address and mapping the route on Google Maps, I decided to go to the Jobcentre Plus Office as the office was the most closest to walk from work.

Lunchtime came, so I head over to Jobcentre Plus Office and asked one of the guy using paper & pen to see if they have the paperwork/pack. He said they do not have anything I needed and advised me to use the telephone service. It took him about 2 or 3 seconds before he realised I cannot do that. Then he went off & spoke to someone else. He came back and advised me to go to the HMRC Enquiry Centre. I thanked him for his help and left the building.

Walked over to the HMRC Enquiry Centre and was greeted by a member of staff. Again, using paper & pen, I asked for the paperwork/pack. Once again, she told me to use the telephone service. Only that she did not realise and I had to point out that I am deaf and cannot use it. All of sudden, she was a bit panicky, didn’t know what to say. She told me to wait while she went into the manager's office to have a chat.

She came back and said that I could contact the office using textphone. I told her I did not have one at home or at work. Then she said I would have to make an appointment to see someone just to get the pack. Huh? She invited me to her desk and she looked at the calendar to try to find a free date for me. All different dates were offered, I'm busy on these dates.

During that time, the other member of staff led other people to the desk where I was sitting down and they looked fed up because we were communicating by paper & pen. I thought it were rude for the staff to put their customers next to me. Where's my privacy?

At this time, the manager came over and they both discussed what other options are. They told me to come back in a few hours time and they can do an appointment for me on the same day. No I cannot was my reply, because I have to go back to work.

All I wanted to do is to collect the pack and go back to work. That's all.

But no, I have to see someone just to get the pack. And that I need to show them 2 forms of ID - i.e. my driving licence and a passport. Nowhere on their website states that I need them to pick up the pack. Hum ho...

All of sudden, the manager/the lady (can't remember who said first) said they have a textphone in one of their office that I could use to call HMRC to get the pack posted to me. What? After all of this faffing about which lasted 10 minutes or so, they say it now? Why not say that at the first place?

They told me to wait in the other room. On the corner of my eye, I can see them rushing around like headless chicken, trying to figure out how to get the textphone equipment to be set up & work. I guess they rarely take it out...

The manager asked for my NI number and I gave him my NI card. While waiting, it dawned on me... why did the staff ask me for 2 forms of IDs just to get the pack, when I can get the pack over the phone (or even online when it's available) without them asking me for any forms of IDs? Do you see the flaw in this?

Anyway, after a while of wait, they lead me to the other room where there's a textphone and a keyboard attached to it. She read the user guide carefully (it has words and picture showing what to do). She followed the guide but somehow the text phone did not work. She tried again but still not working.

I looked at the guide and found that she was doing it wrong. I pointed it out to her (the photo showed very clearly how, but she didn’t follow that). To her credit, she quickly corrected it and it worked this time.

It rang. It connected to Text Relay. Then it connected to the number that she dialled. It went through the options. I picked the option I wanted to use. And it put me on hold. Knowing what HMRC is like, I knew it will be a long hold. And we waited.

During that time, the manager kept coming back and checking up on us, seeing if we've made any progress with the phone call. But we were still on hold.

And holding.... holding.... holding... holding.... holding for a long time.

The manager came back for the final time and asked me some questions on paper and I answered his questions. He decided that the phone call is not needed. He asked for my DOB, my address and my employment details. I provided them to him.

And I got the pack.

Finally.

I was happy that I got the pack finally, but at the same time, I was thinking - why did I have to go through all of that? It has left me very tired, very frustrated and annoyed that I have wasted a lot of time doing that when it can be easily resolved right at the start. Overall, I think this has taken me about 50 minutes from the start to the finish.

I finally walked back to work and it was almost 2 hours (20 mins round walking trip) since I left for my lunch break when it could have been easily resolved within 30 - 40 minutes!

I feel I was lucky that I was able to do this as I was able to communicate with them via paper & pen & using English language, but what about other Deaf people who are very strong BSL and is unable to do a proper English structure to communicate with them - will they be able to do this and have the issue resolved like me? My honest answer - I don't think so. I fear they will just say no and let them go on their way, which sadly does happen now and then.

Yes, they did provide me with a textphone, but please do it at the start without having for me to go through all of this faffing around. Their website also needs to be very clear that I need to bring some sort of other documents before I turn up.

To end this, I'd like to say a big thank you to the HMRC staff in Norwich (if you're reading this) - to the manager and the lady who sat down with me when we were making the phone call. Thank you for understanding and for being patient with me.

Anyway, that's my write up of my trip to the HMRC Office in Norwich and my experience with them. Tax does have to be taxing."

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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"

Help!

AccountingWeb recently summarised Louise Fernandez v HMRC (TCO1123), in which the taxpayer challenged two fines for filing her self-assessment tax returns 11 months late, on 3 December 2010.

Ms Fernandez experienced problems logging into HMRC's website to file her Self Assessment tax returns, seemingly she had been given the wrong activation codes.

Anyhoo, she then emailed HMRC (using the email address she had been given by them) to inform them of her difficulties accessing the site.

Unfortunately she didn't receive a reply.

For why?

She had emailed the VAT helpdesk, rather than the Self Assessment helpdesk.

Geraint Jones, presenting judgement, was unimpressed with HMRC's non response to Ms Fernandez's email. He noted wryly:

"It seems little point having a [Inland] Revenue helpline if it doesn't offer any help."

He accepted that Fernandez had a reasonable excuse for submitting her tax return late, but said that the second fine should stand, given that it took her another 11 months to file her return.

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"

Feedback About HMRC Website

HMRC have asked for feedback from customers (I mean taxpayers) about the HMRC website.

The feedback can be given via this online form HMRC website quality survey.

Strangely enough the "What's new" section of the HMRC website does not feature this initiative, nor can I find via the HMRC search engine any mention of it, which makes one wonder how people who visit the site are meant to know about it.

Therefore one might care to flag to HMRC that initiatives such as this ought to be made more prominent on the HMRC website, and that the HMRC search engine needs to be improved.

Just a suggestion though:)

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"

ROFLOL!!!!

HMRC, having admitted that their call centre service is not running at its best, have decided to further improve its "customer service" by shutting down its website between 2nd - 6th April (ironically 5th April is the end of the tax year).

Yes, you did read the correctly, HMRC will shut down its website between 2nd-6th April!

HMRC insist that this closure is necessary for "routine" computer maintenance.

Funny time of year to choose to do it, even if HMRC are not at their busiest during this time, their "customers" (taxpayers to you and I) are busy sorting out ISA's etc etc.

Taking the pish or what?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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

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

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

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

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

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

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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

HMRC's Secret Survey

My thanks to a loyal reader who dropped me a summery of the Face to Face Customer Survey Satisfaction Results April to November 2010:

-98% of customers are satisfied with the service they received.
-98% of customers were happy with the time between requesting and receiving an appointment.
-99% of customers felt they were dealt with in a professional way.
-97% found the EC environment friendly
-99% felt they were treated as individuals by staff.
-73% of interviews were tax, 17% Tax Credits, 10% Other HMRC
-54% of customers tried to get information from other HMRC options before their appointment (48% tried phone, 6% wrote and 7% website)

As you can see, they are very good indeed.

Yet HMRC have not publicised these either externally or internally.

For why?

HMRC's "strategy" is to move away from face to face encounters with "customers", survey results that show they do this very well are not at all welcome. Indeed Richard James, Head of Face to Face operations, is looking for ways to increase the 54% of respondees who used other HMRC options first.

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"

Staff Survey Results - Motivational Response

The 2010 HMRC staff survey results have now been published on the HMRC website. (For comparison purposes here is the 2009 survey - published by the government in 2010)

Hoorah!

Here they are : Staff Survey Results 2010.

- Engagement index 3% lower than last year and 23% below civil service average.

- 12% would recommend HMRC to work in (3% down on last year), and 15% are proud to tell people they work form HMRC (3% down).

- 9% think that changes made are for the better (1% down).

- 12% think that HMRC is run well (1% down), 18% think that senior managers will take action based on the survey (3% up)...and so on.

You can read what Strathie said (in June this year) about the last survey (which was published in February 2010) here.

Here is a brief extract:

"We may not see much, if any, improvement in the next set of People Survey results. These issues are deep-seated and will take time to turn round; with your help, we can do that."

All in all things have got worse, even the response rate (69%) is not that encouraging.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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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"

Gone Phishing II

Earlier this month a loyal reader sent me a link to an article about a potential security flaw within the HMRC website, that may allow phishers to harvest personal information from the unwary user.

It transpires that there is another, similar, security flaw within the HMRC site. Concept Business System explain the issues here.

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"

Gone Phishing

My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me a link to an article about a potential security flaw within the HMRC website, that may allow phishers to harvest personal information from the unwary user.

Here is a summary of the issue from Concept Business Systems (who also put together the video above):

Summary:
A potentially dangerous cross site scripting vulnerability has been discovered on Her Majesty's Customs & Excise web site.

Description:
This exploit allows anyone to alter content shown on the HMRC.gov.uk search site.

As we've shown below, it's possible to change any part of the site. If exploited, a fraudster could potentially gain access to user accounts by forwarding a malicious link by email, web forum or chat message. HMRC are a prime target for phishing scams, but success rates are limited for a number of reasons. The main problem fraudsters face is trying to convince their victims that the site (and email) is genuine. Quite often, it's simple grammatical / spelling mistakes which give the game away. Unfortunately, some scams are very well executed and can fool even the most careful users.

All phishing scams are dangerous, but this is no ordinary phishing scam and it stands out for a two reasons.

1. It's a very high profile site.
2. The fraudster no longer needs to clone the site, these changes can be made to the genuine site... thus hiding the scam behind the correct URL (www.hmrc.gov.uk) and giving the user a false sense of security.

In the video below, we've altered the content and replaced it with a message asking the user to login in order to perform a tailored search. This message and the form beneath are fake; created purely to collect your username & password. These details are not sent to HMRC's server and are therefore not covered by their SSL certificate (the padlock symbol). Instead, they are forwarded to an address of the hackers choice.

With phishing scams & identity theft a real cause for concern, this needs to be resolved as a matter of urgency.

If you suspect you've been a victim of such a scam, it's absolutely vital that you change your password as soon as possible, particularly if you're an agent acting on behalf of other clients.

Also, email security.custcon@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

DO NOT disclose any personal details in your email... simply outline the type of information you disclosed and to whom.

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"

Money Well Spent II

Aside from paying its top people a "decent" salary (nothing wrong with that, if they actually deliver a decent service), HMRC are not averse to paying outsiders a "decent" wad when it comes to website design and development.

Rory Cellan-Jones writes:

"What would it cost to create and run a government website for three years?

How does £105m sound?

After we covered a couple of stories about government spending on websites and iPhone apps someone got in touch to suggest we take a look at one particular site, businesslink.gov.uk.

The correspondent said this site, run by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC), had cost £35m a year to build and operate for three years and suggested that it had been poor value, delivered an unsatisfactory service to users and proved technically shaky.

I could not quite believe that figure - it sounds an awful lot of money for one site
but it turns out to be true. Businesslink.gov.uk was among the sites singled out last week by the Cabinet Office as very expensive in terms of cost per visit.

When I went to the lengthy document in which the Central Office of Information (COI) examined central government websites, I found that £35m staring out from a table.

Only the NHS Choices site, at £21m, comes anywhere close. But it has around six million unique users a month, whereas the Business Link site, which offers all kinds of advice to businesses, has just over a million.

The site is the work of a major outsourcing company called Serco, which has sub-contracted the technology to a little business called BT. So how do the costs break down?

The COI report has some detail - £6.2m on strategy and planning, £4.4m on design and build, £4.7m on hosting and infrastructure, £15.3m on content provision and £4.5m on testing and evaluation. What I can't work out is why that cost is repeated for three years."

Needless to say HMRC and Serco think that it is good value:

"HMRC and its supplier Serco also put up a robust defence. HMRC said the businesslink.gov.uk site delivered benefits of over £800m a year to companies - a huge return on the £35m invested. I always wonder how those kind of figures are worked out, in the public or private sector.

Serco also cites that £800m figure and goes on to say that it has continually looked for efficiency savings since winning the contract in 2005, and these have amounted to £44m so far."

So that's alright then!

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 Staff Survey Published 2010

As promised here is HMRC's staff survey (published February 2010), which has yet to appear on their website.

- HMRC Full Final
- HMRC People Survey 2010

The People Survey measures employee engagement. Engaged employees feel they belong to an organisation that motivates them to do their very best. They care about its future and will put in more effort to help it meet its goals and objectives.

Across the Civil Service, the Cabinet Office measures employee engagement in three ways:
•SAY – whether someone speaks positively about their department
•STAY – whether they want to stay with their department
•STRIVE – whether they feel encouraged to support their department to deliver and
succeedt (sic page 2 has this spelling mistake)

The results are not stunning, eg:

- 18% are proud to work for HMRC
- 14% would recommend working for HMRC
- 13% feel HMRC motivates them to achieve it's (sic an error of grammar this time) objectives
- 61% didn't have confidence in the decision made by HMRC's senior managers
- 67% didn't feel that change was well managed
- 60% didn't see career development opportunities in HMRC
- 63% don't believe that HMRC managers will take action as a result of the survey
- 24% want to leave HMRC within 1 year

Page 12 shows HMRC consistently very low/at the bottom of the pile when compared to other public sector departments eg:

- bottom when asked if work gives a personal sense of accomplishment
- bottom when asked if they are proud to tell others they work for HMRC
- bottom when asked if they would recommend HMRC as a great place to work
- 95 out of 96 (almost bottom) when comparing leadership and change management

All in all a pretty dismal performance.

However, be not alarmed, Lesley Strathie (CEO) is upbeat; as per the HMRC intranet:

"Today we are publishing the results of our latest People Survey. I would like to start by thanking everyone who took part. More than 53,000 people responded, more than last year's pilot survey, and I am grateful so many of you took the time to share your views and opinions.

I am pleased to see a big rise in the number of people who find their work both interesting (73 per cent) and challenging (59 per cent). The report also shows that we have begun to make progress in ensuring our people feel involved in the important decisions that affect their work. People across our Department clearly value their colleagues and know they will support them.

The results for line managers, who are easily the biggest influence on how someone feels about their job, have continued to increase. The number of people who receive regular feedback on their performance has risen significantly (57 per cent up from 47 per cent), while 60 per cent have confidence in their manager’s decisions and 70 per cent say their manager recognises when they have done their job well. These results are a tribute to the hard work and dedication of many of our managers.

It is also reassuring that the overwhelming majority of people are clear what is expected of them in their jobs, although the results are slightly down on equivalent questions in the last survey.

Although the results in these areas are encouraging, we clearly have a considerable way to go. The survey raises a number of significant issues around the way leadership is viewed within the Department, which we will focus on in the coming months. There is also dissatisfaction with the way change is managed.

Career development is another big issue, with fewer people believing there are opportunities for them within the Department. Although 75 per cent say they have the right skills to do their jobs, only 20 per cent think the learning and development they have done at work has helped them develop their careers.

These issues are very much on our agenda and have been highlighted by the Capability Re-Review team. There are no simple or straightforward solutions to many of these issues and your support will be invaluable in helping us address them.

There is clearly a lot of information here for our senior team to examine and discuss. ExCom will be meeting later this month to discuss what you have told us and agree action. We will let you know what that means for you and your area as soon as possible (sic no fullstop)

We will be holding a staff dial-in on 17 February. ExCom and I will be very pleased to answer any questions you have and listen to your views on the actions we all need to take.

I am grateful to everyone in our People Function for the tremendous work they have done since the pilot survey and to our Engagement Champions across the Department for their support.

Finally, thank you for your participation.

Lesley Strathie
Chief executive and permanent secretary

February 2 2010"

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 Bans Tax Advice

HMRC and HMG are a tad short of cash these days, as such they are desperate to maximise the tax take.

Nothing annoys HMG and HMRC more than tax advisers who help people legitimately reduce their tax burden.

Therefore it should come as no surprise to learn that there is some draft legislation in the offing that aims to clamp down on tax advisers.

The rather interesting point about this legislation is the definition of what constitutes a "tax adviser/agent". Seemingly it is not just the media popular image of some sharp suited City legal eagle quaffing brandies, as he dispenses advice at the rate of £500 per hour, it also includes anyone who may offer even a small morsel of advice (that aims to lessen HMRC's tax take) even if this advice is for free.

You don't believe me?

Well, take a look here:

"Tax agent
2 (1) A person is a tax agent if the person assists another person (a 'client') with
the client's tax affairs.
(2) A person may be a tax agent even if—
(a) the assistance is given free of charge,
(b) the assistance is given otherwise than in the course of business,
(c) the assistance is given indirectly to the client or at the request of someone other than the client, or
(d) the assistance is not given specifically to assist with the client's tax affairs, but the person giving the assistance knows it will be used, or is likely to be used, for that purpose.
(3) Assistance with a client's tax affairs includes assistance with any document that is likely to be relied on by HMRC to determine the client’s tax position.
(4) Assistance with a client's tax affairs also includes—
(a) advising a client in relation to tax, and
(b) acting or purporting to act as agent on behalf of a client in relation to
tax.
(5) If a client is assisted by more than one individual in a firm or business, each
individual may be regarded as a separate tax agent."

Does this matter?

Well it may well do.

Tax experts are warning that another piece of HMRC's master plan ("Working with Tax Agents: the next stage") when linked to the above could see any individual who gives anyone tax advice, that leads to a tax loss to the Treasury, as guilty of a new offence of deliberate wrongdoing, which carries a fine of between £1,500 to £50,000.

Nichola Ross Martin is warning that organisations such as the Citizens Advice Bureau, or the tax media industry would have to stop providing advice around tax issues for fear of being fined.

John Whiting, head of tax policy at the CIoT, is none too happy either. He has told Accountancy Age:

"As I read it, you or anyone saying 'invest in an ISA and save money' could technically come under the wrongdoing [rules].

The CIoT is totally supportive of HMRC getting at fraudulent tax agents, but this opens everybody up. I'm sure it's not [HMRC's] intention but it's difficult to read it any other way."

Nichola Ross Martin, on her website, expands the issue:

"The rules apply to all tax agents, but the term 'tax agent' is extended and now includes anyone who gives advice for free, and so will hit charities, such as the Citizen's Advice Bureau, Tax Aid, and Chartered Institute of Taxation's (CIOT) Tax Help for Older People, and apply to other businesses outside the accounting and legal professions such as Radio and TV, newspapers, tax publishers, websites, and tax forums. The fine will be levied at individuals, and so a business could find that all its employees are fined too.

Andrew Meeson, Vice President of the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) says, 'The parallel with anti-terror legislation which enables over-zealous constables to arrest tourists photographing Westminster Abbey is too striking to ignore; HMRC must not go down a similar route by painting the definition of tax agent far too inclusively.' "

HMRC recognise that they may well encounter some well deserved resistance to this lurch towards a police state

"para 2.11 A significant proportion was very critical about HMRC’s service standards and perceived lack of accountability. There was a strong sense that HMRC should not be seeking new powers which applied to tax agents until it had got its own house in order."

"Police state!"

Surely I exaggerate I hear to wail?

No, I do not exaggerate!

Governments, by their very nature, seek to justify their existence and increase their power over the people who elect them.

This costs money.

During times of plenty, tax revenues abound and the populace is relatively docile; thus the government is able to wield power, and build its pet quangos with little or no resistance.

During times of recession and war people become less docile, and tax revenues fall.

Governments, during these times of recession and war, seek to squeeze taxpayers for every last penny in order to stay in power. Governments will use all means at their disposal to increase the tax take.

By classifying any form of "tax advice" as a potential crime, the government has in effect sought to block people's fundamental right to organise their financial affairs in the most tax efficient way possible. In other words the government seeks to turn the population into docile milch cows, whose only purpose to "feed" the government.

HMRC and HMG will of course deny that this is the case.

But they would wouldn't they?

Do you really trust them not to do whatever they think they can get away with?

This is a step towards dictatorship.



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"

Porkies?

The Telegraph claims that HMRC have made a very small U turn wrt their policy on the electronic submission of the Employer Annual Return for businesses with under 50 employees.

HMRC has told employers they could be fined up to £3K if they break HMRC's "law" (I thought parliament made the law?) and submit data on paper.

However, following protests from hard pressed small businesses HMRC now say that employers with between 1 and 5 employees have one more year to comply.

The Telegraph claims that this is a U turn.

HMRC claim that the details were on the HMRC website all along.

The Telegraph cannot find them.

Is HMRC telling porkies here?

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"

Smiley!

The Mail on Sunday has caused a wee bit of a furore in the reserved ranks of the HMRC.

The paper reports that an anonymous group of HMRC staff posted a photo of themselves on Faecesbook wearing cardboard smiley faces.

Unfortunately for their hapless staff, HMRC ban employees from uploading material to social networking websites (HMRC worry about their "brand value").

To make matters worse, the above video was also posted onto the same Faecesbook page.

A witch hunt is now on.

The page now seems to have been taken down.

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"

Flawed Tool!

The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) are marginally unimpressed with HMRC's new website tool ("Do I Qualify?") that is meant to calculate whether an individual qualifies for tax credits.

LITGR claim that HMRC's tool is flawed, and that it produces the wrong answer in many cases.

LITRG claim that errors appear when income for 2007/08 is less than the current year. The answer given appears to be based on the current year figure instead of the previous year's.

LITRG also claims that the tool does not account for those with disabilities, or those who might be entitled to the 50 plus element of working tax credit and people who work 30 hours a week.

HMRC have partially addressed the problem, by adding an extra step for those with disabilities.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

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

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

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

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

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

HMRC's Coding Enigma II

The confusion over HMRC's erroneous tax codes being sent out this year continues to rumble on.

Yesterday an HMRC spokesman said:

"It's a hangover from the old system.

Before we had five or six systems sending out tax codes, but because of last year's upgrade we now have one. The new system is basically picking up duplicates from the old one and flushing them out.

The new system is working as it should, and we're confident that it will not happen again in future."

Today, on their own website, HMRC (having been stung into action by the media) now say:

"The transition to the new system has, however brought to light discrepancies in our existing records and this is resulting in a number of incorrect notices being issued.

The vast majority of notices will be correct but there will be cases where, because the data carried over from our old systems does not match employers' data, some people receive an incorrect coding notice or more than one coding notice for the same employment because of these discrepancies.

This is a transitional issue caused by data mismatches, rather than an IT issue and will be resolved once we have cleared these from the system."

So it's not "duplicates", but "discrepancies in existing records". It most certainly isn't an "IT issue"!

I am having trouble understanding this, if there were discrepancies in existing records wouldn't that mean that HMRC would have sent out incorrect coding notices in previous years then?

I wonder what the reason will be next week?

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"