Marcus Bishop Associates - Chartered Certified Accountants - The way forward for Businesses

The chairman of HM Revenue & Customs has apologised for the treatment of taxpayers after the service was attacked by a committee of MPs. Mike Clasper said: "We are not happy with our performance in 2010." The Treasury select committee said dissatisfaction risked undermining public onfidence in the tax system. The worst problems were in getting tax offices to answer phone calls at peak times and "endemic" delays in replying to letters. HMRC says it has recruited 1,000 extra contact centre advisers to handle calls during "exceptionally busy periods".
The MPs report blamed bad management, demoralised staff, excessive job cuts, and increasingly complex tax laws for the poor level of service it had discovered. "The evidence we have received in this inquiry has been disturbing," the MPs said.
 
"HMRC's delivery of services to the general public has fallen to unacceptable levels in several areas. There is considerable dissatisfaction among the public and tax professionals with
the service provided by the department," the MPs added.
 
Frank Haskew, of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales
(ICAEW), doubted that the situation would improve.
 
"Given the necessity to reduce the current 70,000 staff by a further 10,000, we are not convinced that HMRC have the resources or the capability to deliver on
improving service standards," he said.
 
This concern about the future was echoed by the MPs. They said that the HMRC did a good job in collecting taxes. But they were worried that the quality of service for taxpayers could become even worse.
 
Chas Roy-Chowdhury of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) warned: "If reduced funding leaves HMRC unable to address the basics of maintaining a service for compliant taxpayers, the potential damage to the economy and reputation of the United Kingdom is immense."