HMRC managers summoned by MPs - Live highlights

One question that should be asked is whether the HMRC is "fit for purpose".  Having to send out millions upon millions of letters advising taxpayers that their taxation liability is incorrect is unprecedented in my opinion.  What's more in many cases these letters and the associated liabilities are unexpected.  The idea of having one centralised body dealing with tax coding notices for all the millions of employees in the country is fraught with danger.  It will only get worse as baby boomers reach retirement but continue working after 65.  Perhaps we need a system where everyone lodges income tax returns like other western countries.  However, if the HMRC cannot deal properly with tax code notices how will they cope with annual income tax returns?

If the above is true then we can give up any hope of any meaningful reform of HMRC.

Take them to the Tower!

Able manager?? Well he has proved that.

Of course they are not fit for purpose. They cannot even answer a telephone anymore, or have difficulty knowing what one is. They are incapable of sending a copy of a document to another tax office, if one were to call into one of the rare tax enquiry centres. They undercharge for mergers and acquisitions (Vodafone) to the tune of £5BN and they are incapable of going after £35BN worth of uncollected tax and £70BN worth of evaded tax.

It seems to me that to call a Treasury Select Committee to ask silly questions about the PAYE "scandal" is just the tip of the iceberg. They need to be asking what the HMRC is doing about not being fit for purpose. This is a golden opportunity which is now being wasted on asking token questions about how to rearrange the deckchairs on the Titanic when the whole ship is sinking.

Tried to call Shipley yesterday regarding an amount held on a suspense account.

Message says: "SWITCHBOARD IS PERMANENTLY CLOSED".

WTF?

When was the HMRC threshold amount for coding out arrears last uprated for inflation ?

Of course there should be a full scale Select Committee Enquiry into HMRC. Its a disgrace. Then we might find out why it is that there Chief Executive and others have no fundamental tax experience. Apart from the fact that there is now a vast amount of tac uncollected and evaded.

These principles are far too important to go unanswered for any further substantial period of time.

Mr. Hartnett has proved absolutely that he;

 1- has no idea  how HMRC does, or does not, work,

2- is totally oblivious to the needs and fears of ordinary people who quite logically believe that HMRC issue coding notices which are correct

3- totally fails to understand that a normal person is very concerned and frightend to believe that they may owe a substantial sum to HMRC which they are unable to pay

4- is totally unsuited to a position of responsibility in a major Government department

The Coailition Governement has pledged to eliminate waste - Mr. Hartnett has fully qualified himself to be eliminated.

 Lashmars Tax Accountnats

Can we have a poll on this website? The question being a vote of confidence in HMRC's management, a no vote meaning they should go.

Well, I suppose it makes a change from Wayne Rooney. But there is a tremendous amount of froth and nonsense.  I should have thought that all professionals were aware that because of the changeover to the new computer HMRC had several years' PAYE reconciliations to go.

The serious questions here are

1      Is this actually going to produce the right answers now - there are remarks there from Lesley Strathie which appear to suggest they are seeing problems already

2      She also suggested that the move to real time as canvassed in the discussion paper is "high risk" - and if it is then it should not be tried

This should happen more often.  HMRC must not have full controll of our tax system.  They should be checked regularly.

The number of errors they produced in the last few years are unacceptable.  This recent error in PAYE coding managed to leaked into the media.  There are more that people are not aware of which I want clarifications.

One of which is why HMRC is using Citi bank instead of UK banks?  What happen to the perpetrators of the frudulent tax returns that happened last year? 

With these many huge fiascos I doubt that the PAYE reform would work. 

There have been some ill-considered and childish responses to all this, especially with regard to the "fit for purpose" issue and also Dave Hartnett's tenure.  Yes Dave Hartnett blundered in his response but readers should note carefully what Rebecca Benneyworth said about him.  He is profession-friendly.  If he were replaced I suspect that the new incumbent would be more of a media-savvy type, more concerned with spin than with function, and we would all suffer.  And yes, HMRC can be frustratingly awful, particularly in the area of communications.  The discontinuance of the dedicated adviser lines for each district was a terrible mistake.  But, never forget that when you have a problem you need a friend and I have found on countless occasions that if you cultivate a relationship with a tax officer they will do all they can to be helpful and practical.  I admit that this does not detract from the fact that overall there is a morale problem at HMRC which Hartnett & Co must address.

David Rangeley

D Hartnett has ruled over HMRC to create  the current situation where morale at HMRC is at rock bottom and the whole organisation is in a shambles.

Inland Revenue, as was, worked on the whole efficiently at collecting tax for the Government to spend and ensuring that most taxpayers paid what was their due. The effectiveness of both of those duties have collapsed. So who is being fairly and properly served by Mr. Hartnett as it is neither the Government nor taxpayers ?

We find that on most occassions, when needed,  individual tax officers are always fair and reasonable and will try to assist through the muddled quagmire of HMRC. The exception to this, currently, is an officer who refuses our request for a client to have a "DO" PAYE code issued against his new pension on the grounds that our client may pay too much tax! The current "BR" code will result in a large underpayment for 2010/11 with corresponding high POAs for 2011/12. We are still persevering with this one!

HMRC needs a cheif executive who understands what HMRC's function is and how it should wqork. He also needs to undertsnad the sensibilkities of indiivdual tax payers who had been under the misstaken impression that theiur tax laibitlies were being properly collected by HMRC.  

Mr. Hartnett has now apologised for the shambles and, after being strongly pressed at the Parliamentary select Committee yesterday also apologised for not having apologised earlier! Note that therre was no unilateral apology even after the enormity of his insensiitvity had been pointed out to him.

The British SA tax system is closely based on the US system but falls short in one fudnamental aspect- in UK not everyone is required to file a Tax Return. Presumably IR/HMRC tried to avoid that or was it a Government fearful of being branded totalitarian? Anyway, the currents sytem DOES NOT WORK - perhaps far more people have complicated tax affairs, although the current fiasco is seemingly caused by people having changed employment once over the last 5 years.

I am sure that all higher rate taxpayers would be only too pleased to complete a Tax Return each year if required to do so. For HMRC this would seem to offeer the prospect of collecting higher rate tax on investment income which no one currently seems to volunteer to HMRC and HMRC has no effective system for detecting.

So -- change is needed!!!

Lashmars tax Accountants