Departmental Report 2009 H M Revenue And Customs

HMRC is the UK's tax administration, responsible for administering income tax, corporation tax, VAT, National Insurance contributions, excise dutes, environmental taxes, insurance premium tax, capital gains tax, petroleum revenue tax and stamp duty. It is also responsible for the payment of tax credits, child benefit and child trust fund endowments. Some of the achievements recorded for the first part of 2009-10 include: collection of over £209 billion in revenue; delivery of the biggest change to PAYE system in 20 years with the launch of the new PAYE Service and Work Management System (MPPC); delivery of the largest learning intervention in the UK this year with that new service; delivered 14 full or partial vacations of HMRC locations resulting in savings of £6.8 million; achieving platinum status in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index and the launching of the Health in Pregnancy Grant

Dated July 2009

The Chancellor's departments faced extraordinary challenges during 2008-09, mainly arising from the need to respond to the emerging financial crisis and associated economic downturn. The report concludes that it is very difficult to draw final conclusions regarding their level of success - too much remains unfinished business. It draws attention, in particular, to the new relationship between the Treasury and UKFI, and recommends that the Government considers whether the formal terms of the relationship need some re-definition in the light of experience. The report is particularly concerned by the dire results for HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of a cross-Government staff survey pilot study. The Report calls for HMRC management to publish a clear and detailed plan to provide focus and direction to their efforts to re-engage with their workforce. Noting a rise in customer complaints and that, on average, only 57 per cent of calls to HMRC contact centres were answered during 2008-09. HMRC should publish more data to enable effective scrutiny of its performance against its targets, data which is essential for tax gaps to be closed and for the take up of the working tax credit to be assessed and improved. The Report is critical of the failure of most departments to provide accurate and timely monthly in-year figures to the Treasury. Other sections of the report cover National Savings & Investment, the revaluation of UK statutory ports and the performance of the Royal Mint.

This report identified serious concerns in a number of areas, including: unacceptable difficulties contacting HMRC by phone during peak periods; endemic delays in responding to post; and an increasing focus on online communication that may exclude those without reliable internet access. The Committee recognises that the Department performs a crucial role and operates under significant external pressures including continuing resource reductions, deficiencies in tax legislation and the legacy of the merger. It also acknowledges the commitment of management to tackling these problems and the dedication and professionalism of HMRC staff. However, it concluded that the Department has a difficult few years ahead of it, as it attempts to improve its service. The Committee makes recommendations in the following areas: Improving the service provided by contact centres; providing robust alternative to online contact; ensuring greater awareness of the impact of process changes on individuals and businesses; ensuring reductions in resources are managed in a way that is commensurate with the enabling IT and process improvements and minimises the loss of Departmental tax expertise; reviewing the division of responsibilities between HMRC and HM Treasury in relation to making tax policy, to ensure practical considerations are taken into account at the earliest possible stage; better targeting of letters that threaten serious consequences against individuals; having the National Audit Office externally audit preparations for Real-time Information, to ensure Ministers can be held accountable for progress against the Government's ambitious timetable; and examining how the Department can achieve better accountability around the settlement of large tax cases

A NAO report published as HC 30, Session 2009-10.

The reports published as HC 631 (ISBN 9780215555922); HC 632 (9780215555939); HC 574 (9780215556042); HC 552 (9780215556066); HC 502 (9780215556165)

Excellent technical writing on corporation tax abounds, but it tends to be inaccessible to public lawyers, political theorists and political economists. Although recent years have seen not only an explosion in public law scholarship but also a reawakening of interest in interpretative political theory and political economy, the potential of these perspectives to illuminate the corporation tax debate has remained unexplored. In this important work, John Snape seeks to reconcile these disparate strands of scholarship and to contribute to a new way of understanding and conceptualising the reform of the law relating to corporate taxation. Drawing on important developments in public law scholarship, the study combines elements of political theory and political economy. It advances a new interpretation of corporation tax law as an instrument of rule, through the maximisation of a nation's economic potential. Snape shows how corporate taxation belongs at the centre of any discussion of economic globalisation, not only because of the potential of national tax systems to influence inward investment decisions but also because of the potential of those decisions to shape the public interest that those tax systems might embody. Following public law and politics models, the book looks afresh at the impact of Britain's political institutions, of the processes of its representative government and of the theory that moulds and orders the values that the corporation tax code contains. This is a timely exploration of cutting-edge issues of public policy.

HM Revenue and Customs' performance in responding to calls has been poor. In 2008-09, HMRC answered only 57 per cent of the 103 million calls to its main helplines, compared to an industry standard of 95 per cent; callers waited on average two minutes, and nearly four minutes in peak periods to speak to an advisor; and yet contact centre staff spent only 38 per cent of their time handling calls against an industry benchmark of 60 per cent. HMRC has set a target to answer more than 90 per cent of calls by March 2012, but achieving this would still fall short of best practice. It could do more to reduce the confusion caused by having 139 telephone numbers. A total of 6.8 million calls failed accuracy checks in 2008-09 because advisors did not follow guidance and procedures, but HMRC does not know how often the advice it provides by telephone is actually incorrect. HMRC could also match staffing levels more closely to levels of demand, as the number of calls fluctuates significantly around key statutory deadlines during the year. There are also significant opportunities to reduce costs and improve its responsiveness by reducing the number of unnecessary calls. HMRC estimates that 35 per cent of calls are avoidable, often from people seeking to clarify information they had received which they did not understand, or chasing progress on items being processed in other parts of the department.