A report published by the House of Commons Treasury select committee has claimed HMRC’s “unacceptable” quality of service failed due to a number of factors, including “overly ambitious expectations for IT projects, sustained cuts to resources, a management culture of ‘command and control’, increasingly complex tax legislation and the legacy of the merger between Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise.”

It highlighted a number of areas of “serious” concern, including “unacceptable difficulties contacting HMRC by phone during peak periods” and “endemic delays in responding to post”. As Chris Mattos, of Randall & Payne, explains: “As one of the largest accountancy practices in the this area, we have noticed the slow down in response time from HMRC due to loss of staff in their local offices. Statement and payment slips seem to be late coming out of their system too! Rather late in the day HMRC has admitted there is a problem, in that not all taxpayers have been sent either a Self-Assessment Statement of Account, or payslips for making the 31 July 2011 tax payment.

If you receive your payslip/statement in August because of an HMRC delay, as long as you pay within 30 days there will be no charge to interest, but we are seeing more taxpayers being issued with penalties and not all of them are at fault”
The report, ‘Administration and Effectiveness of HM Revenue and Customs’, stated that the organisation would face further difficult years as it moves to resolve open cases in PAYE and implement “further ambitious IT upgrades”. As a result, the committee warned it would monitor the performance of HMRC during the remainder of the parliament, and “expects the department to deliver where substantial improvements have been promised”.
 
The Treasury committee’s report into HMRC follows on from others published in recent weeks, including one from the National Audit Office, which concluded the organisation's planned £1.6bn reduction in running costs represents “a big challenge”. “As an agent we have priority over taxpayers in communicating with HMRC and can help local businesses to react more quickly if they feel HMRC is not responding to their concerns”, says Chris, “It would make a lot of sense for HMRC to have some sort of electronic messaging system attached to their online ‘Government Gateway’. This would mean that when individuals and companies log in to input their returns, they could have a means of direct communication with HMRC.”

For more information contact Chris Mattos at Randall & Payne Tax on 01453 763471