Accounts and Tax World

05/06/2023

HMRC sent clients’ notices to agents’ homes

HMRC has paused sending taxpayer penalty letters to agents after a small number were sent to the of agents.

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The tax department has blamed a system error after multiple commenters on Any Answers reported their clients’ VAT penalty letters at their home addresses.

“A system error has seen a small number of VAT penalty letters sent to an agent’s home address instead of their business address. We are looking to fix this urgently and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

has that it has paused issuing further customer penalty letters being sent to agents until the issue is fixed. The tax department said it hopes to have the situation resolved very soon.

23/05/2023

HMRC reveals surge in early self assessment filers

More than 77,500 submitted their on 6 April 2023, but the Any Answers community had mixed feelings about HMRC’s .

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HMRC has revealed that it had received more than double the number of early filers this in comparison to prior.

The news, released by last week, noted that "more than 77,500 customers submitted their tax return for the 2022 to 2023 tax year on 6 April 2023, compared to almost 37,000 customers on 6 April 2018".

Myrtle Lloyd HMRC’s director general for customer services, added: “Filing your self assessment early means you can spend more time building your business or doing the things that you enjoy and less time worrying about completing your tax return.”

17/05/2023

to close registration helpline in five days’ time

HMRC has today the of the VAT helpline from Monday 22 May, giving agents and taxpayers just five days’ warning that the will end.

Accounts and Tax World https://accountaxworld.com

The cord will be pulled on the VAT registration helpline from this coming Monday, 22 May, with taxpayers being advised by HMRC to use the “Where’s my reply” .

Initially agents were told in an email from HMRC that the service will close on 22 May 2024, but HMRC has that the service is actually ending on Monday.

The change will mean that people a could have to wait up to 40 working days for a response.

09/05/2023

HMRC Puts Onus For Option To Tax Onto Taxpayers

HMRC is pushing responsibility for options to tax onto the taxpayers’ shoulders, making it more difficult to obtain and assuming will make valid applications in the first place.

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HMRC recently concluded a regarding the option to on land and buildings processes. Clearly, recognized that its ability to process options to tax has taken a significant drop over the past two years and with no signs of on the horizon.

Since I wrote about the main proposals, HMRC has converted those into actual and .

Change 1: No longer Confirming The Option To Tax

Change 2: Changes To Requests To Confirm An Option To Tax

04/05/2023

HMRC’s future requires updated data gathering

How collects and stores data to digitally transform taxpayer services is currently under debate. Paul Aplin looks at the and ahead.

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I recently wrote about one of the discussion documents released on Budget Day, Simplifying and modernising HMRC’s income tax services through the tax administration framework. Two further consultation relating to the Framework Review were on 27 April. One of these seeks views on “how HMRC’s information and data-gathering powers… could be updated to enable of taxpayer …”

This follows on from last year’s consultation on improving the range of information and data HMRC , uses and shares across . Responses to that consultation showed support for more effective and use of third-party information and data to pre-populate tax returns and endorsed the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) on the use of third-party information and data. Respondents stressed the importance of safeguards data integrity, acquisition and use, and highlighted the need for clear-cut obligations and .

Making it personal

I have written several times about the potential that the Single Customer Accounts and Tax World (SCA) holds for improving the experience of tax administration for individual taxpayers. Key to that potential is pre-population of the (and tax return) with information that taxpayers would otherwise have to add themselves. Several overseas tax authorities already pre-populate tax returns to a greater or lesser extent (and some have been doing so for many years).

As the new acknowledges, however, “HMRC is currently only able to pre-populate returns on a basis, and this will remain the case without reform of information and data-gathering powers, and safeguards.”

01/05/2023

Tax day tackles IR35, simplification and tax gap

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The government has published 23 technical tax updates on Tax Administration and Maintenance Day, including consultations on expanding the cash basis, tackling promoters of tax avoidance and double-taxation of income under IR35.

Accounts and Tax World

21/04/2023

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18/04/2023

HMRC failed to answer 35% of calls during February

’s February performance report reported that 35% of calls requesting to speak to an adviser went unanswered, Accountax World Ltd while aired their frustrations on Any Answers about the tax authority's customer service.

HMRC's most recent report has revealed that of the 2.4m calls made to the tax authority that requested only 64.7% were actually connected to an adviser. https://accountaxworld.com

While this figure has improved on HMRC's low of 60% in January, the current percentage falls far below the 72.2% answered in the same month last year and a further drop from the the high of 78.7% back in June of last year.

Conversely, HMRC's function enjoyed a 93.8% handling rate, only dropping slightly from the month before. However, the report noted that only 51,000 customers had used this the service during February, compared to the three million using the helpline. Https://accountaxworld.com

The report also recorded a consecutive drop in positive responses over customer satisfaction. The number of who were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with HMRC’s phone, webchat and digital services sat at 76.7%, a drop from 78.5% in January and a significant reduction from its peak of 82.3% in of .

The report’s ‘Net Easy’ parameter, which records the of positive responses minus the percentage of negative responses with HMRC’s phone, webchat and , also saw a drop from 57.6% in January to 53.3% in February.

21/03/2023

Writing a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) is not fun. An accountant writing a SAR is profoundly outside their comfort zone. They may feel uncomfortable “grassing” on a client and about what may happen following submission of the report. They may feel uneasy about reporting a suspicion for which they have seen no proof.

Make A Suspicious Activity Report?

20/03/2023

has been intended for its staff since 1994, ranging from information to administrative guidance and, occasionally, . It is likely then that HMRC has included content in the manuals with the that will consult them. Accounts and Tax World

On 1 February 2023, HMRC a new set of internal manual under the title .

HMRC’s new mediation