Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB)
The Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (CCAB) presidents met recently with senior HMRC officials, Dave Hartnett, Director General with responsibility for business tax issues, and Theresa Middleton, Director for Small Medium Enterprises, to discuss the relationship between HMRC and CCAB members. Together we focused on
- what was going well and less well
- how we might work more effectively together; including
- how we might engage colleagues on both sides at working level more productively.
What was going well and less well
Both sides agreed that relationships at senior level were now working well. In particular, there was ongoing productive engagement around the implementation of Lord Carter of Coles’ e-services proposals, and the work to take forward the development of new interventions (which now covers a much broader agenda) was progressing positively. HMRC acknowledged that tax agents have a special insight into the operation of the tax system and therefore it is imperative that we listen to them.
The accounting bodies thought there was still room for improvement in HMRC`s service delivery (especially contact centre performance where agents continue to report concerns on both access and query handling). They welcomed the telephone pilot which was taking place in the north west. This has just finished and will be evaluated shortly. HMRC will use the results to design improved services for agents. The results will also help with the design of a pilot to offer agents a named contact point with the department. In addition HMRC plans to improve the agent focus of its website. A recent HMRC survey has found that agents are increasingly using the site for access to information and they report greater success at first point of contact than for contact centres.
Both sides wanted to see a general improvement in terms of tax technical knowledge and its use. Agents felt that it was often hard to get access to trained HMRC specialists. HMRC was keen to work with the professional bodies to improve agent performance in a number of areas. It was clear that most agents did a thorough and professional job, but it was still the case having a professionally qualified agent acting was no guarantee that returns made would be error-free. One way to improve performance could be through HMRC sharing with agents the common errors found on returns. Another was to continue to work with the professional bodies on their CPD programmes to ensure agents were keeping up to date. At the other extreme, at an appropriate stage cases of clear incompetence would need to be escalated to the institutes, as of course would the rare incidents of fraud.
On HMRC`s side there was also concern about the non-compliance of a minority of firms with the disclosure rules. CCAB were keen to see such firms reported to the relevant institute. This would be taken forward bilaterally.
Working more effectively together
It was noted that local working together (LWT) arrangements had been affected by the merger and subsequent restructuring of HMRC business units. Accountability for LWT had been unclear and this had led to some local groups ceasing to meet or meeting less frequently. HMRC accepted that handling should have been better. The position is now much improved with accountabilities restored and additional resources in HMRC`s central team that runs and monitors the arrangements. This should re-energise LWT and help improve relationships at the coal face.
Greater engagement
Both sides acknowledged the gap between the centre and the front line, and the need to bridge that to achieve a shift in culture. Sometimes progress on this front could be achieved by a change in policy or practice (for example, the disclosure rules, or Sir David Varney`s recommendations about how HMRC works with larger businesses. The latter moves the emphasis from post-return audit and enquiry, and intervention yield, to pre-return activity that should obviate the need for post-return work in many cases). HMRC aims to take this approach on a wider front over time.
HMRC want to shift the balance of work in the department away from handling error and other exceptions and dealing with unnecessary contact towards helping agents and other customers to get things right up-front rather than checking them later. Agents are in the front line of compliance, and as much in the business of managing risk as is HMRC. A shift of this sort could require more openness from agents about, for example, their risk assessment processes. This is a fundamental change from the way things works now, and could not be achieved quickly nor easily. But there was a real prize here if it could be won with benefits to HMRC, agents, and their clients.
More broadly, there was enthusiasm for getting senior HMRC staff to meetings with groups of agents to share HMRC `s wider agenda and react to concerns and issues of all shapes and sizes. And to bring local accountants and their HMRC counterparts together to understand different pressures and perspectives to deliver better understanding.
