Tony Margaritelli calls out HMRC for its unacceptable treatment of two taxpayers who simply asked for its help Welcome to the latest edition of HMRC EIP magazine.
Another couple of months have passed since the last issue of the magazine and it’s great to introduce two new contributors.
So it’s a warm welcome to Nicola Kelleher of Crowe UK and Fieldfisher’s Fiona Campbell, who cover the Tax Gap and AI respectively. Please don’t forget to get in touch with me if you have an article that you think will be of interest to our readers.
In this issue we feature two special women, Gabrielle O’Donovan and Jessica Harrison – special in that they have both reached out to HMRC for help and, despite their best endeavours, never received it.
Both now have a very different view of HMRC than when they first sought help, and justifiably so. Both have suffered as, at various times, different HMRC staff became involved and did nothing.
Two taxpayers – not accountants, or anything to do with tax – went to HMRC for help, and surely HMRC would look after their ‘customers’ in these circumstances? Surely HMRC would recognise that there was no agent or accountant involved and so would react positively and proactively. Sadly, as you will read in this issue, they most certainly did not.
Two taxpayers, two ordinary people, who found themselves caught up in a situation that only HMRC could help them resolve. They should have been helped from the outset – their problems were not linked to some complex area of taxation like IR35 or the loan charge. They were not involved in a scheme or looking to plunder the government coffers with a bogus R&D claim; they just needed some straightforward help that anyone could see was easy to give.
We, as accountants and taxation professionals, have studied and been trained in the vagaries of our field and we know how bad the present situation is within HMRC. And we really must do more to stand up and call out poor service, not just for our clients and our staff but for all taxpayers out there.
The Gabrielles and the Jessicas out there deserve better and if we just shake our head and mutter under our breath nothing will change.
We must push for improvements in every aspect of their work and we must call out and report bad attitudes, behaviour and work. We must hold HMRC to the same level of competency that they say we must adhere to in our dealings with them. We also owe a duty to give praise and support to HMRC staff that carry out their work diligently and professionally and who go the extra yard to get the job done. If more of those people had positions of authority with HMRC I think the situation would be so much better.
Let’s make a start by calling out the use of the word ‘customer’, because a customer is a person who buys goods or services – which means there is an element of choice on the customer’s part. Clearly, with HMRC this is nonsense, the term is universally disliked by all and sundry, except no doubt those who like to put a ‘spin’ on things.
I hope you enjoy this issue as much as we have commissioning and producing it. Please pass a copy to friends and colleagues who work in taxation and recommend they take up a subscription, because every single subscriber is important. As we grow, so does our influence and our reach.
- Tony Margaritelli is the Publisher of HMRC EIP magazine