Hanging on The Telephone - CCA Accreditation

I understand that HMRC are keen to become leaders within the "Contact Centre Industry" (call centres to you and I).

As such they are keen to ensure that as many HMRC orifices as possible retain their CCA (Customer Contact Association) accreditation.

The other week HMRC sent out an internal mail outlining the main points of the strategy. Three key points being:

-HMRC has to demonstrate that it has the highest standards of staff care,
-HMRC staff training has to be of the highest standard and
-HMRC should work towards a situation where there is a good level of staff retention.

A very reasonable and intelligent set of objectives, compliance with these would indicate that HMRC is a well run organisation.

However, reality may be a tad different.

HMRC management have been demanding ever decreasing call handling times for Contact Centre (CC) staff, I understand that these demands force staff to cut corners in order to avoid disciplinary action.

Disciplinary action?

Is HMRC some form of boot camp?

Instructions have been issued to CC staff telling them to update records when a caller asks about a repayment, in order to save processing offices work when the claim comes in. This on occasions means that the CC staff must ask for information going back 5 years, which of course takes time on the phone.

I am told that CC staff are required to reconcile self assessment under/over-payments, rather that email the service office to do it. This again takes time.

The result being that some CC staff are refusing to help customers fill in their tax returns, others are asking customers to write in unnecessarily to address basic coding queries etc.

The aspirational target time for handling a phone enquiry is 7 minutes 30 seconds. The reality is far longer.

Things are not going well in HMRCland!

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"

Cheers

Do a Google for HMRC and you are given 1,280,000 results.

I am delighted to see that this site appears 6th in the list.

Drinks all round!

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"

Statutory Compensation

Nichola Ross Martin, on AccountingWeb, bemoans the fact that complaining to the HMRC about their cock ups costs time and money:

"If you are like me, then your experiences of HMRC error, mistake and delay will have cost your average clients hundreds, not thousands of pounds.

The time and expense of writing into HMRC and the adjudicator to make a claim for compensation will often increase the claim disproportionately – it might double. Making such claims also feels like a waste of one’s professional time."

She calls for a fresh approach, and the implementation of a table of statutory compensation for HMRC cock ups.

"The level of compensation would apply to the gravity of the problem. The highest level would be paid where it was found that the incident to which it pertained was wholly avoidable by HMRC and the taxpayer or agent had suffered prolonged stress, delay and were unable to carry out one or more tasks as a result."

I and, I suspect, many other taxpayers heartily endorse her suggestion.

However, I fear that HMRC and the government will never implement it.

HMRC and the government wish for the dice to be loaded against the taxpayer, in their eyes we are their servants not the other way around.

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 Devil Is In The Detail

Who, why or what is a "professional adviser"?

This question has been vexing the minds of the good people of UHY Hacker Young, as they ponder HMRC's definition of "reasonable care".

UHY Hacker Young believes that taxpayers could be fined for innocent mistakes on their returns, despite HMRC promises that people who took "reasonable care" would not be fined.

Could it be that Hacker Young don't trust HMRC?

Surely not!

Simon Newark, the firm's VAT partner, told the Telegraph that HMRC defines reasonable care as taking advice from a tax professional.

This means that the majority of high street accountants would be excluded, as they are not "tax professionals" in the strict sense of the term, even though they are the main source of advice and help for many taxpayers.

HMRC have provided a rather slippery answer:

"We cannot and do not specify that an adviser should have certain qualifications. That is for the taxpayer to consider when choosing who to seek advice from."

At first glance that may seem reasonable. However, it leaves HMRC with the final decision as to whether the person from whom the advice was taken was qualified enough and as such whether the taxpayer took "reasonable care".

In other words HMRC are loading the dice in their favour, by not giving and equivocal "yes" or "no".

Mr Newark agrees, and told the Telegraph that:

"The 'reasonable care' clause was clearly not given proper consideration and is causing much confusion rather than making things easier."

Until HMRC provides an equivocal "yes" or "no" answer, people will have to trust HMRC to judge them fairly in the event a dispute arises.

Hands up all of you who trust HMRC? (Certainly not the staff I would warrant).

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"

Fighting Back

HMRC from offices in the Borders (Hawick and Galashiels), due to be closed by 2011, have taken their fight to the streets.

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) went to Galashiels last Friday to gather signatures of support, and were joined by Borders Lib Dem MP Michael Moore.

He is of the view, as indeed are many, that the HMRC restructuring has not been properly thought through and was quoted:

"The government have not yet shown what they are going to save by closing these offices.

For all the clever processing and online transactions that people can do, there is still a need for people to look behind the figures and to do skilled interpretative work.

That needs highly qualified individuals - we have got a whole host of them in the Borders and I want us to keep them here."

As already noted, taxpayers prefer to talk face to face with tax professionals from HMRC, rather than calling a faceless call centre. Regrettably HMRC are ignoring the wishes of the taxpayers.

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 Charter - Closing Deadline

Those of you who at least want to try to have a say in how HMRC should conduct itself in future, when dealing with taxpayers, need to access and comment on the HMRC consultation on the proposed new charter (there was one many moons ago, but for some reason or other HMRC dropped it).

The charter can be accessed here Charter.

Three small points though:

1 You have until 17 September to give a response.

2 The charter will be non statutory, ie HMRC will not be obliged to comply with it.

3 HMRC have dropped the Civil Service Code as a safeguard.

The entire "consultation" exercise is a sham designed to give the government the fig leaf of the pretence that it cares about taxpayers' rights.

It doesn't care, as its prime motivation is raising as much tax revenue as possible in order to fund its economically non viable spending programmes.

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"