Working with tax agents to produce ‘radical changes’

Whatever else we might think of DH he does these bits well.

What do the CIOT in particular and other professional bodies think of the Revenue's view that a professional qualification means nothing?

When asked about the delays in repayments DH again blamed unscrupulous agents for submitting fraudulent claims, no consideration of lack of HMRC staff, poor training etc.

You speak to someone at a call centre regarding a specific point on a client.
They say they need to refer the matter to someone at the actual office which deals with that taxpaYER.
You then receive a phone call up to a week later.

Why can't the call centre have a systemfor putting agents through directly to the right office in those circumstances?. That would save everybody's time. Surely the internal screens could provide the call centre employee with sufficient info to get the agent to the correct place.

One must assume that the current system has been designed to be deliberately awkward. Even quite simple matters can become painfull, the result being that many do not comply, HMRC thereafter implement denial proceedures and refuse to admit there is a problem. HMRC Inefficiencies are then exported into accountancy practices, costing everyone. Less profit is made meaning less tax and the guilty are seen to get away with it time and time and time again. Is change actually possible ? or is this just a slick PR campaign? for what?
HMRC would do well to read professional body rule books to see the controls that are already in place to prevent agent misbehaviour.
All recent so called simplifications to the tax system have largely resulted in confusion rather than clarity and the whole system seems to be in a muddle. You can now file your own tax return on line, (without an agent) getting it wrong in most cases pay the tax you think is fair to you and the computer will never notice simplifying the tax system will not help, but increase the number of people armed with the confidence that accountancy and taxation matters are easier than spelling or basic maths.
There Endeth the Rant.

“I can’t envisage a world where there will be one rule for qualifieds and another for the unqualifieds”, said Hartnett. “Different taxpayers need different services and there’s a place for everybody”, he added. However, he also noted: “Some unqualified tax advisers might be better off following other professions. We might look at helping them do that”.

What an offensive statement.

There are far more tax inspectors who would be "better off following other professions".

Studies show that approximately half of all tax calculations by HMRC are incorrect, and that nearly all of them are errors in the Revenue's favour. And they dare to talk about "distrust".

To, once again, staff offices and contact centres with properly trained staff who know what they are talking about and can take real action to sort a problem out. The same goes for revenue offices in general - it is sad to note that it seems that the only way to get a complete job done on any case (and in some cases any answer to correspondence at all)is by eventually directing copies of all the unanswered or incompletely answered correspondence to the Complaints Manager at the office in question. I find it difficult to believe that I am the only agent whose letters seem to be, in the main, ignored or inadequately dealt with. The frustration of not being able to get through directly to the office in question by telephone to check why correspondence has not been answered and speak to someone with the knowledge and experience to deal with the problem is considerable. I appreciate that the Revenue has undergone huge changes in responsibilities and working practices over the 13 years since I took early retirement from the department but most of those changes do not seem to be of benefit to the individual taxpayer in terms of getting their liability right and making it easy for them to contact the right person for information and advice.

Hi,
i got a letter from IRS stating that my turbo tax calculated wrong and i owe an additional $1200. i have already paid $1300. it has to do with line 42 on the 1040A. whats up with this.
Pawnshops New England

Hartnet appears to have forgotten that in the UK you are taxed based on what the law says, and not what he would like it to say. There is the difference.