Welcome Moira

HMRC having sacked Adam Hart-Davis as their front man, for his comments about the complexity of tax, have now recruited Moira Stuart as the new face of HMRC's Self Assessment TV advertising campaign.

The adverts will feature Moira "popping up in unexpected places" to remind people of the deadline dates. Moira will also be appearing on billboards and posters, and in press and online ads, encouraging people to beat the deadlines and file on time.

Excellent!

However, I understand from a comment posted on Accounting Web, that:

"There is such a backlog of returns not even logged as received with half the staff not trained to capture them, they will just add to the stock-pile on window ledges, desks and floors."

Maybe the money spent on hiring Moria would have been better spent on improving the systems in house?

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"

Gone Fishing

Accountancy Age reports that HMRC's investigation into offshore accounts, now covers up to 80,000 individuals suspected of using offshore bank accounts to avoid paying UK tax.

A good sized haul of fish to wade through.

Seemingly HMRC have mounted this massive fishing trip, because they are desperate to have a criminal prosecution.

The trouble is as Bob Brown, global leader for tax and investigations for Ernst & Young, says:

"The quality of information [on offshore accounts] is not as good as they thought and they lack enough experienced investigators to run with this."

Would it not therefore be better to cut one's cloth according to one's girth?
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"

Big Brother Blocks Site

I understand, from a comment made on an earlier post, that HMRC have now blocked access to this site in their offices; ie they have forbidden their staff to access a site that is freely available to everyone else.

It does appear that HMRC don't like criticism, don't like this site and most certainly do not like their staff reading items that may be deemed to be "off message".

Interestingly, despite the censorship, this site's position on Google (type "HMRC" into the Google search box) has moved up from 6th to 4th place out of 1,290,000 entries.

Who knows, maybe it will one day overtake HMRC's own site on Google?

There may be ways for HMRC staff to get around the block, eg use a proxy such as Anonymouse www.anonymouse.org, Megaproxy (www.megaproxy.com), ID Zap (www.idzap.com) and The Cloak (www.the-cloak.com).

Maybe someone with more IT expertise than myself could come up with better suggestions as to how the firewall can be breached, without staff getting a bollocking or losing their jobs?

My advice to the management of HMRC is that you cannot treat professional adults like children who cannot be trusted, this policy will backfire.

My advice to the staff of HMRC is to follow Peter Finch's call to arms, stick your heads outside of your windows and shout:

"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"



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"

Hanging on The Telephone - Cut Off In Their Prime

The recent article about taxpayers phoning HMRC call centres being cut off by HMRC staff (in order to save time looking up answers), attracted this comment:

"Ah, but this doesn't just happen to customers of HMRC, it also happens to staff.

The other day, I was having difficulty figuring out how to claim a particular item of T&S (Travel and Subsistence) after working away.

Our internal guidance was, as usual, absolutely useless so I phoned the HR Service Centre. After waiting for fifteen minutes and ignoring the automated voice repeatedly telling me that I'd be better off e-mailing (a 10-working day turnaround for an answer? I don't bloody think so!) I spoke to a chap, explained the complicated situation and, without a word, he promptly hung up on me because the question was too difficult for him to answer!

Cue me calling again, waiting another fifteen minutes, speaking to someone else and being told that he didn't know the answer but would forward it to the T&S team. The expected timescale for a response? 10 working days.

To their credit, they actually e-mailed me back within 2 days.

With the wrong answer.

Piss-poor customer service isn't just restricted to our external customers you know..."

As I have noted many times before, HMRC staff are taxpayers too; the above case proves that point, as HMRC staff are being treated in exactly the same way as "civilian" taxpayers.

http://hmrcisshite.blogspot.com/2008/09/hanging-on-telephone-discipline.html
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"

EDS - Reality Sucks!

Those of you with very long memories may recall way back in November 2005 HMRC announcing that it had reached a settlement with EDS, re compensation for the IT problems it had over its tax credit system.

When tax credits were introduced in 2003 EDS supplied the IT system that "supported" it. Needless to say, as with all government IT projects, it went tits up and thousands of families were overpaid.

EDS got a sound spanking, and HMRC were proud to announce a settlement of £71M in 2005.

All well and good, except for one small fly in HMRC's oinkment.

They "forgot" to mention that EDS would be allowed to pay £26M of the settlement out of future revenue streams from future government contracts, the deal being that EDS were allowed to pay 4.5% of income over 3 years every quarter.

Ooops!

Can you guess what happened next?

Yes, that's right, EDS has not won the contracts it had hoped for.

Ooops!

Thus it has fallen short on its payments.

Ooops!

HMRC are on the ball though, and have told Computer Weekly that they have "compiled millions of documents in preparation for a possible hearing in the High Court to recover the money".

Indeed, in February 2008, the Public Accounts Committee recommended that HMRC "should consider litigation if the full amount of the settlement is not forthcoming in 2008".

Whilst, one way or another, it seems that there is a solution to this issue; there remains the question as to why HMRC were economical with the actualite in 2005?

In fact had it not been for the work of the Public Accounts Committee, this little omission would never have to come to light.

Why would HMRC be so reluctant to be open with the taxpayer and its political masters?

The Committee were not entirely impressed with the agreement, Computer Weekly states that they "were amazed by it, and the fact that the Treasury not only approved it but considered it 'pragmatic'".

Alan Williams said:

"It looks as if it is all a bit illusory, a presentational package."

The then chairman of HMRC had claimed that the settlement was "commercially astute".

Good grief!

In order to recover compensation for crap performance, the government was placed in the position (by HMRC) of having to hire the same company for future projects.

Are there no qualified accountants running HMRC?

Oh, hang on a minute, there aren't!

By the way, Dave "Nearly Man" Hartnett, now acting CEO of HMRC said in 2003 before the system went live:

"If I might, can I just read you the certificate that was given to us by EDS just before we went live?

It said this:

'I consider that this release of software is fit for purpose of supporting all current and agreed business and statutory requirements for live use in support of business requirement computer systems to help the Inland Revenue's obligation to provide new Tax Credits'.

They signed off the system as fit for purpose."

As Computer Weekly says, HMRC knows that if it goes to court to enforce the settlement its lawyers will have to answer allegations relating to HMRC's own failings.

That will be an interesting can of worms.

However, this will never happen; because, as we know, HMRC does not like to air its dirty laundry in public.

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"