Marriage Allowance to be opened up to the wider public 3 November 2015
Marriage Allowance is one of the new government services being delivered online and was introduced from April 2015. It allows a spouse or civil partner to transfer 10% (£1,060) of their personal allowance (£10,600 for the 2015-16 tax year) to their partner, provided that neither of them pay tax at the higher or additional rate.
This can benefit couples where a spouse does not currently use their full personal allowance and reduce their partner’s tax by up to £212 for the current tax year.
HMRC used the first part of the tax year to test the digital service and ensure it worked well for customers who registered their interest for Marriage Allowance and later applied by email invitation. Marriage Allowance is now open to the wider public and can be claimed by all eligible couples without the need to register first. Customers can apply online at www.GOV.UK/marriageallowance . HMRC customer advisers can support applicants through the online process and where necessary take an application over the telephone. Customers unable to apply online can apply by telephone calling 0300 200 3300. When asked, they should say they are calling about ‘Marriage Allowance’ to be put through to an advisor. They will need details of both partner’s National Insurance numbers. Applications must be made by the person with the lower income. Customers will need to confirm their identity with HMRC to make an application, and will be asked to provide one of the following: o the last 4 digits of the account that their pension, child benefit or tax credits is paid into; o the last 4 digits of an account that pays interest o details from a P60 Employers can help HMRC is keen that everyone who is eligible for Marriage Allowance is aware of it and able to access it. HMRC would value your help in working with your employees / clients to: Encourage all eligible people to apply for Marriage Allowance earlier rather than later in the tax year. This will help mitigate against large volumes of tax code changes being issued at the same time. This will also enable applicants to benefit from the allowance earlier in the year. The benefit will be backdated to April 2015 year. Signpost customers to www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance-guide for further information on eligibility and the application process. Support customers with low digital confidence to make an application online.
HMRC customer service issues may be affecting tax revenue 5 November 2015
A report by the Public Accounts Committee on HMRC’s performance in 2014-15, states that the standard of customer service remains unacceptable.
According to the PAC’s sixth report on performance, HMRC still do not report on how much cash was received as a result of its compliance work or on the scale of aggressive tax avoidance which exploits loopholes in the law. HMRC also continues to avoid publishing information on the scale and nature of tax reliefs that would assist Parliamentary oversight of this area of the tax system. The report goes on to say that the standard of customer service remains unacceptable and that the Committee is particularly disappointed by HMRC’s failure in this area given that people are more likely to pay the right tax when they find HMRC easy to deal with. PAC said that they are concerned that customer service levels are so bad that they are having an adverse impact on the collection of tax revenues. The Committee also remain extremely concerned that HMRC’s work has led to too few prosecutions of individuals for tax evasion and that there is, therefore, no credible punishment to deter people from breaking the law in this manner.
In March 2013, the previous Committee concluded that HMRC had “an abysmal record on customer service”, having only answered 74% of telephone calls received by its contact centres during 2011-12. In 2014-15, HMRC
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