The Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals ……………………………………………………………Policy News Journal
The additional £10 per day penalty can be charged for a maximum of 90 days and so anyone who still has a return outstanding at the end of July will have accumulated fines of £1,000 in total. They are also likely to incur a further penalty of at least £300 if the return is not filed by 31 July 2016. The Low Income Tax Reform Group (LITRG) is urging anyone who has not yet filed their online self-assessment tax return with HMRC for the year ended 5 April 2015, to do so by the end of this month or risk being charged more money.
“…Those on low incomes who may be struggling to deal with the tax system alone can very easily fall foul of them simply due to being insufficiently aware of their tax obligations.
“Importantly, the fines can be appealed against if you have a reasonable excuse for filing the return late.”
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NINO Verification Service- Employment evidence survey 25 May 2016
HMRC would like you to help them build a better online service and have published a survey regarding the NINO verification service.
This is an anonymous business survey designed to help HMRC better understand how businesses use evidence to verify information about their employees.
We would encourage all readers to spare a few minutes to complete this survey which closes on Wednesday 1 June 2016.
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The quality of service for personal taxpayers 26 May 2016
HMRC aimed to move more customers online thereby reducing staff costs but significant numbers of staff were let go before technical improvements were completed leading to a collapse in service quality in 2015. Services have since improved. HMRC’s digital strategy aims to improve the efficiency and quality of its customer services by moving more personal taxpayers online thereby reducing demand for more costly to handle telephone and postal contact. HMRC, through substantial staff reductions, decreased the cost of its personal tax operations between 2010-11 and 2014-15 by £257 million. The National Audit Office’s (NAO) report ‘ The quality of service for personal taxpayers ’ finds that while HMRC maintained or improved customer service up to 2013-14 it then misjudged the cumulative impact of its complex transition and released too many customer service staff before completing service changes. The NAO found that the quality of service provided by HMRC for personal taxpayers collapsed in 2014-15 and the first seven months of 2015-16 when average call waiting times tripled. Services have subsequently improved following the recruitment of additional staff but whether this performance is sustainable depends on HMRC achieving successful outcomes from its programme ‘ Making Tax Digital’ . Between 2010-11 and 2014-15, HMRC cut staff in personal tax from 26,000 to 15,000. To achieve the reductions, it planned to increase automation of the PAYE system, operate on a more flexible basis so staff could move between different services, and move customers from traditional channels to less expensive contact through the expansion of digital services.
HMRC expected to have reduced demand for contact with customers towards the end of the spending review period. It introduced two new services, automated telephony and paperless self-assessment, in 2013-14, but demand for
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Policy News Journal
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