Brain Drain

As HMRC continues apace with it restructuring, I am reliably informed that many experienced staff have gone or are going.

One experienced and professional inspector (with 20 year's under his belt) was so pissed off that he resigned last summer, and went on to the private sector to work for himself.

As is the nature of things, it didn't work out as well as he had hoped and he rang HMRC Human Resources to see if he could rejoin.

He was told to apply for another job in a contact centre!

The words "baby", "throwing out" and "bathwater" spring to mind.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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An Inspector Calls

HMRC tax inspectors will be able to carry out spot-checks on all companies and self-employed people who run their businesses from home, as from next April. Under the new rules, inspectors will be allowed to visit businesses with no warning to "inspect records, assets and premises".

At present, HMRC must open an inquiry into a company and then give 24 hours' notice of a visit.

Needless to say these new powers are not in the interests of the taxpayer, as taxpayers will be placed on the spot with no legal or professional representation.

Criminals and suspects are allowed to have a lawyer present when the police hold them for questioning, why not taxpayers?

Tax does have to be taxing.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com) is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Above The Law

HMRC are becoming a little too full of themselves these days.

John Cassidy, PKF Accountants tax investigations partner, has stated on Director of Finance Online that HMRC has little regard for the central tenets of the English legal system, by presuming taxpayers are guilty.

He cites the recent spewing forth from the HMRC bunker of 5000 letters to offshore account holders, demanding an explanation on funds "about which it knows little".

Quote:

"In many cases, HMRC only knows that someone has an offshore bank account and the funds it contains at a few specific dates.

It has little idea how much interest was earned on the deposits, where the money came from or the key question of whether there is an undeclared UK tax liability at all.

Legally, to issue an assessment for unpaid tax, HMRC must have made a discovery or, in other words, have actual knowledge that further tax is due, not just that it might be due. Yet the threat is that such assessments will definitely be issued unless informal, voluntary answers are given to the questions raised."

HMRC should remember that no one, and no organisation, is above the law.

Tax does have to be taxing.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com) is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

The Big Idea

In April 2007 our "efficient", "competent" and "respected" government held an Employee Engagement Working Group (EEWG) meeting. This witches coven consisted of fourteen members from Britain's foremost government departments; the Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC, and the Ministry of Defence.

All of them well known for their high levels of "efficiency", "openness" and "staff morale".

The HMRC representative on the EEWG was Russell Grossman, HMRC's then head of internal and change communications. He joined HMRC in January 2006, from the BBC.

Grossman was quoted as saying, before joining HMRC:

"The big cultural shift for the department will be focusing on the customer, rather than just collecting tax.

It's an opportunity to mould an internal communication department into one that's a high-performing, best-practice one – rather like we've achieved at the BBC."

Pass the sick bag someone!

This man's head was so clearly stuck up his own backside that he cannot see anything at all!

Anyhoo, here is what the "brains" of the EEWG discussed.

It was realised that not stapling documents together, but putting them in a reusable folder instead, avoided someone else unstapling the documents. Seemingly multiply that action hundreds of times, and you get real productivity gains.

Doubtless you think that I jest, and that I have made that up.

Surely senior government officials would not waste their time talking about such trivial crap?

Unfortunately, I kid you not!

Here is a direct quote from Grossman, whose head appears to have gone even further up his own backside:

"Performance Improvement Events for large number of frontline staff are not just about making staff feel involved. That would be patronising. The focus is on generating real local solutions…

in one celebrated example, people realised that not stapling documents together but putting them in a reusable folder instead avoided someone else unstapling the documents.

Multiply that action hundreds of times and you get real productivity gains… and quite a few less accidentally stabbed fingers!"

Way to go HMRC!

Grossman has now left HMRC, and is now at the director of communications at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

Lucky them!

Are people like this, and their lame brained ideas, really what our tax payments are being spent on?

Is it any wonder that staff morale in HMRC has declined to an all time low?

Tax does have to be taxing.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com) is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

The Avoidance Issue

Last year's Capability Review of Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue (HMRC), the words "capability" and "HMRC" simply don't go together, by Sir Gus O'Donnell has led to an overhaul of HMRC's management structure, with a new non-executive chairman and a chief executive to be appointed.

Dave Hartnett, currently acting chairman, will become acting chief executive as part of the changes.

Still only a "Nearly Man", poor old Dave!

Needless to say, HMRC don't believe in being terribly transparent about the type of person that they want.

When asked a perfectly reasonable question about who they were looking for, an HMRC flunky wouldn't answer, doesn't HMRC realise that we pay their salaries?, he merely said:

"Somebody associated with aggressive avoidance needn't waste their time."

OK here's the "avoidance" issue again. As I have already noted, avoidance is a perfectly legal means of reducing a tax bill, and what every sensible person tries to do; eg people use ISA's, claim personal allowances etc etc.

However, as HMRC has become increasingly politicised, HMRC now tries to equate avoidance with evasion; the latter being illegal.

This attempt to link avoidance and evasion is technically and legally wrong.

Unfortunately, judging from HMRC's statement they have not yet grasped that fundamental tenet of British law.

Maybe those in charge of HMRC need to be sent on a course to teach them the fundamental principles of British law?

Tax does have to be taxing.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com) is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Waste

This post on the Working Family Tax Credits site demonstrates how the bureaucracy of HMRC wastes the time, effort and money of both the taxpayer and HMRC:

"hello, i would be grateful of any info/advice on our situation, as i am really confused tax credits, if i can briefly explain a little about us,my husband is self employed, i don't work and we have 3 children, for the tax year 2006-2007 we submitted an estimate of £22,000 when my husband submitted his tax return for the year 2006-2007 we found out that he had actually earnt 26,000, as soon as i found out the correct amount that my husband had earnt which was January this year i informed them in writing, today i have had a letter from them -

thank you for telling us about your change of circumstances
unfortunately the 31 January 2008 deadline for providing information has now passed and we have already finalised your 2006-2007 tax credits award.we sent you a final decision notice on 8 February 2008 and the law does not allow us to change this.

i am really worried about this, does anyone know if we will have to pay back an over payment directly, as we missed the dead line? or would an overpayment be taken from future awards?"

Tax does have to be taxing.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com) is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"