The Public Accounts Committee has slammed HMRC’s ‘kid gloves’ approach to tax gap and criminal prosecutions, writes Simon Watkins of TaxWatch.
A political scuffle has erupted over HMRC’s customer service, following the release of a Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report accusing HMRC of deliberately “degrading” their telephone services to force taxpayers to shift to electronic communication channels.
Outgoing head of HMRC, Sir Jim Harra has refuted this accusation as “baseless” in his initial retort.
TaxWatch has repeatedly highlighted the desperately poor levels of customer service and their knock on effects for voluntary compliance.
Although the situation has improved recently with lower waiting times and higher success rates, albeit from a record low base.
Whilst this continues to be a problem for HMRC, what is more interesting to TaxWatch is the criticisms made in the PAC report over the recent release of the offshore tax gap and falling prosecution rates.
TaxWatch submitted evidence to the enquiry, drawing on our research insights within our SOTA report, and we are heartened that the Committee agreed with our concerns, many of which formed the basis for their recommendations.
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