Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.
HMRC Agent Services chronology
iStock_Timeline_Olivier le Moal
HMRC Agent Services chronology

Agent Services timeline: How did we get here?

by
22nd Jul 2016
Save content
Have you found this content useful? Use the button above to save it to your profile.

HMRC’s Agent Services project can be traced back to a consultation that started five years ago. With questions still being asked about how agents will interact with clients and the proposed digital tax system overhaul, John Stokdyk goes looking for portents in the AccountingWEB archive.

Agent Services is the latest manifestation of a strand of government thinking set in train by Tony Blair’s New Labour government, which saw digital technology as the solution to the tax department’s creaking 20th century technology.

The crusade brought us a range of technology blessings in the shape of iXBRL for corporation tax filing, real time information for PAYE data and online tax accounts for businesses and individual taxpayers. But as far as accountants and tax advisers are concerned, the real action kicked off in May 2011 with a consultation paper around HMRC’s agent strategy.

The trouble with government initiatives like this is that they are built on shifting sands of policy proposals and branded initiatives, representing slight variations on a similar theme or overwriting previous embarrassments with new acronyms. HMRC’s “digital strategy” (c2014), for example, is a child of the government’s wider “digital by default” vision launched in 2012.

Thanks to George Osborne’s sudden enthusiasm last March to do away with the annual self assessment tax return this long-running grand project has been swallowed up by what we now call “making tax digital”. The only problem is that only a handful of ministers, Whitehall mandarins and professional insiders know what those plans look like. So sensitive are these documents that they have been locked in a Treasury cupboard since March to minimise the chances of frightening taxpayers - or adding to civil servants’ hassles - through the EU referendum campaign and its aftermath.

With MTD starting to look like “vapourware” promised by software that never appears, the Agent Services project has the advantage of already being in the public domain. And with teams of software engineers raring to go at their new digital centres of excellence in Newcastle and Telford, it might actually benefit from a bit of development work during the next few months while the government ponders its priorities elsewhere.

In an effort to get a more rounded view of what is happening on this front, we took a tour back through the AccountingWEB archives to see what history could tell us what to expect. Be warned - this chronology features several sudden plot twists and a barrage of acronyms and jargon.

The one thing we can be sure of is that we will be getting more of the same in the coming months.

May 2011 - HMRC launches an Agent Strategy consultation with a paper entitled, ‘Establishing the future relationship between the Tax Agent community and HMRC’, outlining plans for “self serve” online access for advisers, and an “agent view” that compiles details of the agent and their client portfolio. As HMRC sees it, this information will help it identify poor practices so it can getter target its support efforts. More than 100 comments reflect the doubts raised by AccountingWEB members.

Aug 2012 - HMRC postpones a three-month test of its agent view strategy for dealing with tax advisers after representations from professional tax bodies.

Dec 2012 - HMRC publishes digital strategy highlighting online self service for agents as a key plank in its efforts to implement the government’s wider “Digital by Default” policy.

May 2013 - HMRC chief executive Lin Homer sets up a Joint Tax Agent Strategy Steering Group (JTASSG) with professional bodies to smooth out the troublespots in the online strategy.

Dec 2013 - In a report responding to the government’s wider digital strategy, HMRC lists “agent online self serve” as one of four “exemplar” projects it is working on. The other initiatives include digital self assessment, the business tax dashboard and PAYE for employees.

May 2014 - New, improved Agent Online Self Service (AOSS) initiative launched, accountant representatives are advised that a unique agent reference (UAR) identification mechanism is nearly complete that would give advisers access to their online accounts. It should be available for wider testing by the end of the year.

Jun 2014 - The JTASSG, Agent Engagement Group (AEG) and Joint Initiative on Service Delivery (JISD) are all disbanded due to duplication of effort. Their responsibilities are to be taken on by Working Together groups, the Issues Overview Group (IOG); and the Joint Initiative Steering Group (JISG).

Oct 2014 - Decision taken not to roll out Identity Assurance (IDA) for agents or organisations. Individual taxpayers would migrate to the new Verify platform, but collective entities would be served by a beefed up government gateway mechanism. Apart from the technical complications of managing organisational IDs across two separate systems, the decision also reflects a shift of emphasis away from agent- to taxpayer-facing services.

Jan 2015 - HMRC starts public beta testing of third party Verify identity checking system for personal tax accounts.

Mar 2015 - Chancellor George Osborne promises to “abolish the annual tax return altogether” in his Budget speech. A companion policy document explains that HMRC will use the information it already holds to populate the digital accounts.

Apr 2015 - A beta test programme gets under way for Agent Online Self Service with 400 accountants and tax advisers. Initially they are able to view a page that gives agents a view of their clients’ PAYE accounts. Additional taxes were expected to be added as the project progressed.

Jul 2015 - The long standing Working Together initiative in which groups of accountants gathered for meetings with local tax officials is revamped as part of a “Digital Support for Business and Agents” service that also now incorporates the agent account manager network and small business education. Working Together meetings will now be open to any agent and take place in online “Talking Points” sessions.

Dec 2015 - Making Tax Digital paper is issued setting out the government’s plans in more detail. By “July-December 2016” authorised agents should be able to manage their clients’ digital tax accounts, the plan suggests.

Apr 2016 - AOSS concept retired and replaced by refashioned “Agent Services” initiative. As HMRC focuses its attention on MTD, accountants are told there will be no further development of the existing services that agents receive.

Jun 2016 - Making Tax Digital documents originally slated for publication alongside the March 2016 Budget are delayed by “purdah” restrictions during the EU referendum campaign. Publication is further delayed by the political and administrative chaos following the Leave victory. 

Replies (0)

Please login or register to join the discussion.

There are currently no replies, be the first to post a reply.