The Agent Strategy consultation document emerged in a backdrop of declining service and standards plus a lack of trust in HMRC, most notably voiced by Anthony Thomas of the CIOT.
If HMRC’s proposed remedies are to succeed it will need to win back where it stands in the tax profession and work out how far it needs to go.
With this in mind we thought we would run the first in a series of Agent Strategy polls. More than 100 members voted and it looks like HMRC has a long way to go.
When asked the question “Do you trust HMRC?” nearly three quarters of members polled replied “not a lot”, “rarely” or “I'd sooner trust Ryan Giggs with my daughter”.
The results are, however, not a total loss for the Revenue, with one sole voice “totally” trusting and a further 8% responding “quite a lot”.
Clint Westwood summarised the situation with HMRC: “It is possible to categorise HMRC's activities into groups which have their own distinct and identifiable levels of trustworthiness. There is also a distinction between having trust in their systems and having trust in the individuals who are trying to operate them. And on the individuals front, there is a distinction between trusting their integrity and trusting their competence.”
Michele Shapland added: “I have found that it is pot luck on numerous occasions and I tend to scrutinise anything I received from them with a fine tooth comb. On the other hand I have also come across some excellent people who will give the right advice, correct answers and will give the service one would expect from a well run public service but unfortunately they are becoming a very rare bread.”
The full results are:
- Totally - 1%
- Quite a lot - 8%
- More often than not - 19%
- Not a lot - 46%
- Rarely - 9%
- I'd sooner trust Ryan Giggs with my daughter - 18%
You can also now vote in this week’s poll: Should AccountingWEB withdraw from the HMRC consultation?
