You might also be interested in
Replies (10)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
HMRC Manuals
"... confirming too that all HMRC content would be switched to Gov.uk by March 2014"
Even the Manuals with all their detailed guidance?
What a waste of money
In this era of austerity I really question whether the expenditure (no doubt sunstantial) on moving the HMRC website to gov.uk can really be justified.
I wonder how many people have a problem finding HMRC website when the search "HMRC", "tax office", "Revenue & Customs", "my tax code", "self assessment" or the many other search terms which would return HMRC website on the first page of results. As a test I will in fact ask my young children to try and find out about tax tonight and see if they stumble across HMRC website.
I can just imagine the meeting where someone suggested that a single website would be a good idea for the Government. Picture the scene .... lots of nodding ..... and no one prepared to say ..... "what's the overall cost of that and is it worth it?"
Bonkers.
Improved search facilities perhaps
It will be interesting to see if the search facility improves.
I find that searching on key words or phrases for content in HMRC manuals, e.g. using the names appearing in tax cases, is now useless even when I know the content is there.
@michael...
agree...you are better using the google that the Revenue's own search facility - crazy waste of money and no doubt an IT company or two have done very well out of this thank you very much (linked to those making the decisions ?!?)....and the nodding was probably done by the dozen self employed consultants sitting around the table.
agreed
Much as I hate Google's morally bankrupt tax policy - which is massively at odds to their unbelievably hypocritcal Corporate Social Responsibility policy - the best way of finding anything on the HMRC site is to identify what you want to find - lets say X, go to Google and enter
HMRC X
Because so much Government IT is just plain drivel, because they have no business to lose if they implement rubbish IT, I'd sooner they moved nothing from the HMRC site, poor though the site is.
If they are just changing the Domain name ..
It should basically cost nothing - just an HTTP redirect to the other website name
Or in any case the 'old' pages should redirect to the equivalent new pages.
Since the Govt had Tim Berners Lee in on the Olympics, they should listen to what he says about not breaking URLs
What Cost ??
Interesting to note that according to details provided by HMRC at the following link:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/transparency/gpc.htm
The annual payment for 2011/2012 from HMRC to Serco Assurance in respect of Website development and maintenance, amounted to - wait for it -
£42,629,307.38
A considerable sum of money for such an activity, and one should remember that this would be in addition to the costs of HMRC Staff actually involved in web content preparation or review.