consideration we have, however, decided that we can make progress and take the next steps without the need for a formal consultation at the present time.
The Spending Review 2013, which details the Government’s spending plans for 2015-16, allocated more than £200m over the next three years to enable HMRC to become an increasingly digital business – offering customers a range of digital services which are so convenient and easy to use that anyone who can use them will choose to do so. We are building a number of initial services as models for other services (known as exemplar services). The first digital exemplar services (including Agent Online Self Serve) are already being developed using the new “agile” method of IT development that is being widely rolled out across Government. This process allows us to build and test quickly, learn from feedback as we go, make changes and move incrementally towards a final system - rather than designing a system in full at the outset. The result is a system which allows the needs of users to be recognised and catered for as it develops, so the final system works better for everyone when it is implemented. We are working with the Government Digital Service (GDS) to build a single Digital Tax Platform that will operate across all HMRC Lines of Business/tax regimes and address the needs of customers and their agents. We are also committed to designing new digital services for customers which are capable of being used by agents on their clients’ behalf provided a valid agent/client relationship can be verified. This important aspect now underpins all of our digital systems development. The work that we have done so far suggests that a formal public consultation document is neither necessary nor appropriate at this point. We are pleased to report that a number of volunteer agents are testing developments as we build them (see more below). We re-iterate that HMRC has no plans to regulate the tax agent profession. HMRC would like to reaffirm its view that agents have an essential role to play in making the tax system work and securing the tax base. HMRC wants to work with agents to support them in that role as we move towards an improved and more efficient tax system based on a digital platform.
What we will do
We will continue work developing the new agent registration service under which agent firms will apply for a Unique Agent Reference (UAR).
We will shortly begin developing an improved agent authorisation service which will make it easier for agents to let HMRC know when they are engaged by a new client.
We also need to establish and test the process for transition, in particular the simple transfer of clients across to the new system.
We will work with GDS and other colleagues to develop our ‘digital’ vision for the future. We want to be able to share this vision with agents and discuss the role of the agent in an increasingly digital world with you. This may take the form of a consultation at a later date and we will keep agents informed of our plans. We will set up a series of pilots to continue to test Agent and Client Statistics (A&CS brings together information held on HMRC systems about agents and the filing, payment and compliance histories of their clients) with the aim of identifying what ‘good looks like’ and how the best agents work.
CIPP Policy News Journal
16/04/2014, Page 506 of 519
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