Policy News Journal - 2015-16

General Admin Burdens You want to spend less time on tax administration and to have greater consistency across different taxes to reduce the burden in running your business.

Working with Agents You want agents to be able to deal with HMRC on behalf of your business more easily.

CIPP comment In response to telephone service issues, the report says that HMRC accept that service levels have not been good enough for many of you at busy periods during 2015/16, but they have taken major steps to improve including the recruitment of 3,000 new staff into customer service roles. 2015 saw their biggest-ever training programme as they build customer support teams that can move across a wide range of work according to demand. The CIPP Policy Team want to assess the impact of these improvements and have a survey running which is looking to identify whether member experiences and views have changed since our previous survey in September 2015. Please take a few minutes to share your views.

Business Tax road map 22 March 2016

HM Treasury has published a Business tax road map which sets out the government’s plans for business taxes to 2020 and beyond.

In 2010, the government set out a corporate tax road map for the first time. This outlined plans to back business through lower corporation tax rates and the modernisation of tax rules and administration. The road map gave businesses the certainty to invest, and a clear and consistent direction for reform. Investment has grown by 30% since 2010, twice as fast as consumption over the same period. Meanwhile the UK was the number one recipient for inward investment in the EU in 2014,119 creating job opportunities across the UK. The government is building on its achievements in the last Parliament, with a new plan to focus support on small businesses through ambitious reforms to business rates. The Business tax road map will support investment while continuing to crack down on avoidance and aggressive tax planning, making sure rules are fair and taxes paid. In particular, the road map will:

 cut tax rates to drive growth and support small businesses  modernise the business tax system in line with international best practice  ensure a level playing field, with large multinationals paying their fair share of tax

The roadmap aims to give businesses the certainty they need to plan and make the long-term investments that are vital for growth and for boosting the UK’s productivity.

Taxes should be low, but must be paid. There should be a level playing field, including between large businesses and small, and between different corporate structures. The system must encourage entrepreneurship and not reward aggressive tax planning. Wherever possible, the government “… will take opportunities to simplify the tax code, and make the administration of tax fit for modern business practices.”

HMRC announces agreement to exit its £10 billion IT contract 4 April 2016

HMRC has announced that it has reached a final agreement with its major IT suppliers on the phased exit of the £10 billion Aspire IT contract, which ends in 2017.

Under the agreement reached with Capgemini and Fujitsu, HMRC will complete the phased exit from a single, overarching IT contract, by breaking it into to a series of smaller, more flexible contracts with existing and new suppliers, and expects that the contracts will be of interest to smaller and medium-sized companies, as well as the larger providers. Starting from April 2016, HMRC will be going to market for a number of IT services.

This approach of smaller, more flexible contracts with multiple suppliers will enable HMRC to deliver a ground- breaking digital strategy by taking advantage of emerging technologies such as open-source software and cloud

CIPP Policy News Journal

25/04/2016, Page 221 of 453

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