Improving HMRC guidance - next steps

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) recognises that some published guidance is targeted at certain groups within the charity community and can be difficult for people who are not tax professionals to use. HMRC are determined to make guidance accessible to the whole of the charities community, from volunteers to professionals.

To achieve this HMRC will review all charities guidance. This will be a significant undertaking and HMRC will contact many groups and individuals to understand their issues and concerns. HMRC will also consider how to help charities reduce their administrative burdens by, for example, reducing common errors which would save charities time and resources.

Over the course of the next few months HMRC will be:

  • exploring how better to engage and interact with customers
  • assessing and prioritising all existing charities guidance
  • scoping, developing, designing and piloting some different ways of presenting guidance to see if customers find them more helpful
  • developing a more detailed timetable for this work
  • setting up arrangements to discuss specific topics and issues with customers

This will be a large undertaking, in the interim HMRC will produce a number of short guides on specific topics to support charities.