Download or read book HM Revenue Customs written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2007-08, HMRC received more than a quarter of the 4 million Tax Credit renewals forms in July (the renewal deadline) and it processed half of the 8.2 million Income Tax Self Assessment returns during January to March. At busier times customers experience delays on their correspondence and receive a less responsive service. In the lead up to the Income Tax Self Assessment deadline in January 2008, HMRC answered just two thirds of the 7 million telephone calls made to its contact centres. By encouraging more customers to file tax returns online and removing the need for some returns, HMRC has smoothed peaks in workload and released resources of £7 million a year. The peak in Tax Credit renewal work has, however, increased as the deadline has been brought forward to reduce overpayments. Using different processing targets throughout the year and giving customers more information about how long their information will take to process during peak periods could help spread work out throughout the year. During busy periods, HMRC tends to process simpler Income Tax cases, postponing more complex checks and less urgent work. During peak periods, staff productivity is higher, partly reflecting the simpler cases, but HMRC also experiences increased staff sickness absence. The experience of HMRC and other organisations is that between 15 per cent and 40 per cent of contact with customers is avoidable. Reducing the number of avoidable calls by 15 per cent could release resources of up to £23 million a year or 11 per cent of its annual spending on contact centres.
Download or read book Administration and effectiveness of HM Revenue and Customs written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Treasury Committee and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-07-30 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report identified serious concerns in a number of areas, including: unacceptable difficulties contacting HMRC by phone during peak periods; endemic delays in responding to post; and an increasing focus on online communication that may exclude those without reliable internet access. The Committee recognises that the Department performs a crucial role and operates under significant external pressures including continuing resource reductions, deficiencies in tax legislation and the legacy of the merger. It also acknowledges the commitment of management to tackling these problems and the dedication and professionalism of HMRC staff. However, it concluded that the Department has a difficult few years ahead of it, as it attempts to improve its service. The Committee makes recommendations in the following areas: Improving the service provided by contact centres; providing robust alternative to online contact; ensuring greater awareness of the impact of process changes on individuals and businesses; ensuring reductions in resources are managed in a way that is commensurate with the enabling IT and process improvements and minimises the loss of Departmental tax expertise; reviewing the division of responsibilities between HMRC and HM Treasury in relation to making tax policy, to ensure practical considerations are taken into account at the earliest possible stage; better targeting of letters that threaten serious consequences against individuals; having the National Audit Office externally audit preparations for Real-time Information, to ensure Ministers can be held accountable for progress against the Government's ambitious timetable; and examining how the Department can achieve better accountability around the settlement of large tax cases
Download or read book HM Revenue and Customs written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Helping people to provide accurate information about their tax affairs is essential if they are to pay the right amount of tax. Accurate and timely information also helps to reduce the cost to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) of seeking information or correcting errors. HMRC spends £35 million a year on producing and distributing printed forms and other guidance, and £55 million a year answering 12.5 million enquiries on how to complete forms through 13 telephone helplines, face to face meetings at 279 enquiry centres or via its website. It handles over 20 million telephone calls a year from taxpayers. Its performance in answering telephone calls has improved with 72 per cent of calls answered within 20 seconds in 2006-07, compared with 45 per cent in 2005-06. But it is still below the general industry benchmark of 80 per cent. HMRC is encouraging people to use the most cost-effective method of contact that meets their needs. Improving its forms and guidance, as well as its website, should reduce avoidable calls. It estimates that it could save over £100 million by encouraging more people to use its website and online services. It is estimated that 3.3 million taxpayers filing Income Tax Self Assessment returns understated their tax by £2.8 billion in the 2001-02 tax year. Of this, around £330 million arose from unintentional mistakes by taxpayers. HMRC provides accurate and complete advice in 95 per cent of telephone enquiries. But taxpayers sometimes receive inaccurate or incomplete advice because more complicated enquiries are not always referred to expert staff.
Download or read book Helping individuals understand and complete their tax forms written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-04-27 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each year up to 10 million taxpayers contact the HM Revenue and Customs for help with their tax affairs and the Department spends £35 million on producing and distributing printed information and £55 million dealing with contacts. This report looks at the type of communication between the Department and the individual taxpayer whether forms and guidance are easy to obtain, easy to understand, accurate and comprehensive. The potential benefits and savings in making services more responsive to customer needs have previously been highlighted and the Department has already instituted some changes, with more being planned. This report contains recommendations to continue this process.
Download or read book Filing VAT and company tax returns written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-12-13 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Value Added Tax (VAT) and Corporation Tax raised around £120 billion in revenue in 2005-06. Some 1.8 million businesses are registered for VAT and 1.8 million companies registered to file Company Tax returns, which cover their liability for Corporation Tax. This report examines the performance of HM Revenue & Customs in securing and processing VAT and Company Tax returns from businesses which should submit them. It covers: getting the returns in on time; efficiency in dealing with the returns; customer service and the compliance burden on businesses making returns. Over the last three years the number of Company Tax returns filed on time has remained broadly stable at 77 to 79 per cent and VAT return compliance rate has stabilised at 85 per cent. The Department does not have readily available information on the total number of Company Tax returns outstanding from all previous years. It also does not know the potential tax liability arising from all missing returns. At least £1.5 billion of tax is in doubt from late and non-filed VAT and Company Tax returns. The level and the way in which penalties are applied for late filing for the two tax returns has not proved effective in further improving compliance. The report finds online filing of returns could improve efficiency, and welcomes reduction in staff costs and improvements in customer service. The NAO make a number of recommendations, which may be implemented quickly and at low cost, aimed at yielding efficiency savings, reduce tax at risk, and improve the Department's progress towards its targets.
Download or read book Helping newly registered businesses meet their tax obligations written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-12-06 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There are around 700,000 new businesses starting up each year, all of which are required to register with HM Revenue & Customs for their different liable taxes. If a business takes on employees for example they will need to pay, PAYE, and if the business has a turnover exceeding £61,000 they then become liable for VAT. Businesses though need to register separately for each tax for which they are liable. This NAO report examines opportunities for the HM Revenue & Customs to further improve the help to new businesses, and looks at three areas: the compliance record of newly registered businesses; the process of registering for a tax; the guidance and advice provided by the Department. The report also highlights a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: the Department should target those newly registered businesses which are likely to benefit most, such as those entirely new to business and have least understanding of their tax obligations; new businesses should be encouraged to use the email alert service provided by Business Link; the Department should make guidance forms easier to understand and complete and also work more closely with other organisations such as tax agents, Business Link and financial institutions to coordinate help for new businesses in general; the introduction of a single online tax registration for businesses would be beneficial; and the Department should work towards a one stop telephone information system to cover all taxes.
Download or read book Electronic service delivery in the driver vehicle and operator agencies in Great Britain written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-01-16 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the Driving Standards Agency and the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency provide services for 42 million drivers, the keepers of 36 million vehicles, 100,000 commercial vehicle operators and 19,000 authorised MoT businesses in Great Britain. The services include issuing driving licences and vehicle registration documents and conducting driving and Heavy Goods Vehicle and Public Service Vehicle roadworthiness tests. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is also responsible for collecting Vehicle Excise Duty, which raised £5 billion in 2006-07, working with a range of stakeholders, such as the police, to enforce collection of this Duty. The Agencies handled some 124 million customer transactions in 2006-07 for the range of services which could be made available electronically. This report examines six of the 15 services available electronically, in which the Agencies have invested at least £60 million to improve access and service delivery. The services accounted for 12.6 million electronic transactions in 2006-07: applications for provisional driving licence; booking of driving tests (both practical and theory); taking driving theory tests; upgrading from a provisional to full driving licence; buying car tax or making a Statutory Off-Road Notification; and changing commercial vehicle operators' records. The Agencies' investment of some £60 million in new technology to improve access and delivery of five of these services, and their further investment in the services for booking and taking the driving theory test, have made the services easier and quicker for customers to access and less burdensome to use. After taking account of the development cost, the services should also lead to savings of at least £33 million but to achieve these take-up must increase and some aspects of the services must improve.
Download or read book Filling of Income Tax Self assessment Returns written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2005-06-22 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This NAO report examines the progress made by the Inland Revenue (now HM Revenue and Customs) to help ensure that correct Income Tax returns are sent on time from those who are required to submit them, focusing on the following issues: the reasons why taxpayers should file them on time and accurately; the Department's performance in getting returns in by the deadline and in chasing late returns; accuracy of taxpayers in submitting returns and of the Department in processing them; and the need to make forms easier for people to complete in order to reduce compliance and processing costs. The report makes a number of recommendations for improvements focused on seven areas, including achieving the 2008 Public Service Agreement target for the proportion of taxpayers who file on time; using sanctions to encourage timeliness of tax returns; improving the accuracy of Revenue processing methods; and improving the clarity of the self assessment form.
Download or read book The expansion of online filing of tax returns written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-11-11 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HMRC's programme to increase online filing of tax returns has made significant progress. HMRC was set an ambitious timetable to expand the use of online filing and now more than 11.5 million customers a year are submitting one or more tax returns online, generating significant savings. Take-up rates have increased significantly, particularly after mandatory online filing requirements have come into force. Nevertheless, take-up rates on some taxes (VAT, Corporation Tax and Self-Assessment) have been below original forecasts and HMRC has lowered its forecasts in the light of take-up achieved so far. Customers generally recognise the efficiencies and practical benefits that online filing offers although HMRC has yet to measure whether the anticipated benefits and costs to customers are being achieved in practice. Some users have concerns about the costs and usability of filing VAT and Corporation Tax returns online, and about delays in getting login details to access the Self-Assessment online service during peak periods. Levels of satisfaction with the assistance offered through various helpdesks also vary. Online filing is delivering significant savings to HMRC, an estimated £126 million so far. HMRC cannot demonstrate whether it is maximising benefits as it does not yet fully understand the relative costs of dealing with paper and online returns or the costs and benefits of seeking greater take-up.
Download or read book H M Revenue and Customs Departmental Autumn Performance Report 2009 written by Great Britain. HM Revenue & Customs and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2009 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: HMRC is the UK's tax administration, responsible for administering income tax, corporation tax, VAT, National Insurance contributions, excise dutes, environmental taxes, insurance premium tax, capital gains tax, petroleum revenue tax and stamp duty. It is also responsible for the payment of tax credits, child benefit and child trust fund endowments. Some of the achievements recorded for the first part of 2009-10 include: collection of over £209 billion in revenue; delivery of the biggest change to PAYE system in 20 years with the launch of the new PAYE Service and Work Management System (MPPC); delivery of the largest learning intervention in the UK this year with that new service; delivered 14 full or partial vacations of HMRC locations resulting in savings of £6.8 million; achieving platinum status in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility Index and the launching of the Health in Pregnancy Grant
Download or read book Departmental report 2007 H M Revenue Customs written by Great Britain: H.M. Revenue & Customs and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-05-25 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dated May 2007. On cover: Integrating and growing stronger. Spring 2007
Download or read book HM Revenue Customs Transformation Programme written by Great Britain. National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eighteen months into an ambitious programme to transform HMRC, the Department has spent £851 million and achieved estimated benefits of £2.4 billion. These benefits are mainly from activities already underway when the programme began. Changes to funding have led the Department to revise and postpone parts of the programme, and the overall benefits expected carry high levels of uncertainty.A report out today by the National Audit Office found that most of the £11.5 billion benefits are expected to come from an increased tax yield (£6.3 billion) and transaction savings to business and government (£4.1 billion). The estimate of additional tax yield is volatile and assumes collection in full. The Department has made progress in developing its systems and processes and enhanced its project and financial management skills to deliver the programme. For most programmes it has developed governance processes and set out responsibilities for managing the projects. It delivered, as planned, one major programme in the first 18 months and has implemented parts of other programmes. It is taking action to improve implementation plans and milestones, risk management and contingency plans for some other programmes. A major driver of the programme is the Department's targets to achieve efficiency savings of 5 per cent a year. Changes in funding and content of the programme during 2007-08 delayed the completion of the business cases for individual programmes. The Department has approved business cases for 10 programmes and plans to complete the remaining three over Summer 2008. Finalising the component parts of the transformation programme is a critical step, particularly as the Department expects the funding available to peak in 2008-09 and reduce thereafter.Changing the culture of the Department to become more customer-focused is an important part of the programme. In any change programme staff satisfaction might be expected to decline and recent surveys indicate morale remains at a low ebb. The Department needs to more actively demonstrate the benefits to its staff and manage the expectations of customers as many of the improvements for them are scheduled for 2011 and beyond.
Download or read book Filing of VAT and company tax returns written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-12-04 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, this report examined HM Revenue and Customs on getting VAT and Company Tax returns in on time, encouraging businesses to file tax returns online. The Department spends over £9 million a year on processing nine million VAT and Company Tax returns but one in five Company Tax returns and one in seven VAT returns are filed late or not at all. The Department lacks information on businesses that repeatedly file late and the links between late filing and other forms of non-compliance. The penalty regimes are variable and the fixed rate penalties for Company tax are low and not routinely applied, so the Department should also look at non-financial incentives such as tax clearance certificates. Less than 10% of companies' use online filing and the Department does not expect to meet its target of getting 50% of VAT returns filed online by 2007-8 and plans for mandatory online filing for Company Tax have been put back to 2010. Online filing would save the Department most of its current processing costs and be cheaper for businesses. Additional plans to reduce the administrative burden of filing taxes are unlikely to be implemented before 2011.
Download or read book Corporation Tax written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2006-06-29 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Companies resident or conducting business in the UK are liable to pay corporation tax on their profits, and since 1999 corporation tax is a self-assessed tax. Companies are required to submit tax returns each year along with any tax due, and these tax returns are then checked for non-compliance. In 2004-05, HM Revenue and Customs collected about £33 billion in corporation tax, and it expects receipts to increase to £42 billion in 2005-06. Following on from a National Audit Office report (HC 678, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936641) published in January 2006, the Committee's report examines the management of Corporation Tax and sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations. Given an estimated 40 per cent error rate in tax returns, the Department should improve its targeting of enquiries into tax returns for non-compliance and its use of risk assessment techniques in order to increase the tax yield. Plans to restructure the local area office network should help reduce local variations in performance and improve efficiency in enquiry work. All companies will be required to file their tax returns electronically by 2010, and this system should realise a number of benefits, including greater convenience for companies and a reduction in Department's costs and errors in keying-in data.
Download or read book Helping newly registered business meet their tax obligations written by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2007-10-25 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The NAO report on this topic was published as HC 98, session 2006-07 (ISBN 9780102943825)
Download or read book Implementing the Government ICT strategy written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2011-12-21 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The National Audit Office has commended the early progress being made by the Government in implementing its ICT Strategy but has identified areas where progress has not kept pace with the Government's ambitions. Launched in March 2011, the Strategy is intended to tackle systemic problems in government ICT projects which in the past have tended to be too big, lengthy, risky and complex. Departments have independently developed systems which have often not communicated easily with one another. The broad aim of the Strategy is to reduce waste and project failure, create a common ICT infrastructure for government and use ICT to change how public services are delivered. The Government has adopted a pragmatic and collaborative approach and has largely met the first round of deadlines for taking action. New arrangements are in place to implement the Strategy; and the leadership, governance and mechanisms for making sure departments comply with the Strategy are different from those in the past and have the potential to secure benefits. Thirty actions from the Strategy have been rationalized into 19 delivery areas with a more consistent plan about how the new approaches and standards and the common ICT infrastructure will be taken forward. However, there are also a number of areas where not enough progress has been made. The Cabinet Office has not yet developed a system for measuring the extent to which the Strategy is resulting in sustained change. Gaps in ICT skills in the public sector also remain a serious challenge.
