Richard Baron (RB) - Institute of Directors
Noel Cannon (NC) - Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Frances Corrie (FC) - TaxAid
Ron Downhill (RD) - Law Society
Elaine Gibson (EG) - Institute of Payroll & Pension Management
Roger Halson (RH) - HMRC (Chair)
Jean Jesty (JJ) - Association of Taxation Technicians
Clive Johnson (CJ) - Institute of Taxation Technicians
Madeline McGrillen(MM) - HMRC
Phil McKenzie (PM) - HMRC
Bill Pagan (BP) - The Law Society of Scotland
Greig Rattray - HMRC (Minutes)
Norman Redman (NR) - British Bankers Association
Tina Riches (TR) - Chartered Institute of Taxation
Mavis Sargent (MS) - Association of Chartered Certified Accountants
Richard Shooter (RS) - Institute of Chartered Accountants in England &
Wales
Ann Smith (AS) - HMRC
Phillipa Stedman (PS) - Institute of Chartered Accountants in England &
Wales
Bruce Sutherland (BS) - Confederation of British Industry
Simon Sweetman (SS) - Federation of Small Businesses
Jo Wakeman (JW) - HMRC
Graham Wheeler (GW) - Institute of Directors
1.1 RH welcomed everyone to the meeting.
1.2 Apologies had been received from Derek Allen, Paul Hill, Theresa Middleton and Brian Palmer.
1.3 Congratulations were extended to Bruce Sutherland for his recent award from CIOT.
2.1 Keith Lang had been asked to circulate the Customer Experience paper.
3.1 AS gave a presentation on the Pacesetter programme which is being introduced into HMRC’s processing offices.
3.2 BS said that there were now difficulties in people getting to see their local Tax Inspector.
3.3 AS replied that HMRC is retaining its face-to-face service and the programme only affected processing operations.
3.4 AS explained that processing covers such areas as capturing data, processing tax returns, coding work, tax credits, VAT processing and NICO.
4.1 OCC members expressed concern that those who seem to be affected by the measure are completely unaware that they are liable to tax particularly those who were not represented by a tax adviser.
4.2 PM said that there had been an extensive consultation exercise. Consultation had been conducted with bodies such as CIOT, LITRG and STEP. If the measure presented a significant problem, Ministers would take appropriate action but there was no prospect of this at this time. Any representations would be taken into account.
4.3 RH suggested that OCC and the Pre Owned Assets sub-group should maintain a watching brief and had a role in monitoring how the communications process would be managed.
5.1 Introducing her presentation on the implementation of the proposals in the Carter Report, JW said that the Report had been clear that HMRC should engage and consult with its stakeholders as the proposals were implemented. JW thanked members for the feedback which had already been received.
5.2 JW noted the 40% increase in Returns filed online over last year. SS queried how much of this increase was attributable to the decommissioning of the Electronic Lodgement Service. JW agreed to look into this.
[Post meeting note:
Solely internet filing
5.3 To 31 January 2,895,482 Returns were received online (including 11,521
with attachments) compared to 1,696,616 last year an increase of 70.66%.
5.4 2,102,206 of this year’s Returns were submitted by agents 72.6%.
Last year at this point 1,049,712 were submitted by agents - 61.87%.
Overall Online (including ELS for last year)
5.5 Last year 293,311 returns were submitted by agents using the ELS service.
5.6 Therefore comparing 2,895,482 returns to 1,989,927 there is a 45.5% overall
online increase.
5.7 72.6% by agents this year, 67.49% last year (1,049,712 Internet + 293,311
ELS = 1,343,023 agents returns).
5.8 Clearly the migration of agents from the ELS service to internet filing
will have increased numbers filing through that route. But the above figures
demonstrate that, considering overall agent online filing numbers, there was
an increase of around 750,000 over last year. The published figures do include
both Internet and ELS figures for earlier years.]
5.9 TR said that the majority of the feedback had been positive so far but that it was early days.
6.1 RH’s paper had been circulated prior to the meeting.
6.2 RH explained that the Tax Agents and Advisers Team would act as the strategic body looking at how HMRC interacts with agents and would monitor the health of the relationship.
6.3 In response to RD, RH said that he saw the Tax Agents and Advisers Team as only dealing with accountants.
6.4 RB said he would encourage HMRC to be as clear as possible about the boundaries between the consultation forums.
6.5 RH advised that OCC would meet twice a year, supplemented by ad hoc working groups and using a shared workspace.
7.1 At a previous meeting of OCC, it had been suggested that a sub group of OCC should be set up to examine issues surrounding working at home.
7.2 A shared workspace had been set up. MM asked if OCC members could articulate the issues which they had identified to enable her to know who to approach within HMRC. MM also asked for members to let her know who would like to be involved in the sub group.
7.3 There was some confusion amongst members as to whether the sub group was to be concerned with home working issues for employed or self-employed taxpayers.
[Post meeting note:
8.1 There are 9 Government Office Regions and 3 Devolved Administrations across
the UK. A rolling programme of reviews will look at initial proposals for
areas within each Region/Administration. They will include formal consultation
with staff, unions, customers, MPs and relevant external bodies as well as
full diversity screening. They will be reviewed in the following order:
8.2 Any buildings proposed for potential withdrawal as a result of a review
will be further subject to an ‘impact assessment’ and equality
screening. These will take into account staff impacts and the effects on local
customers and communities as well as a series of technical factors before
a final decision is made.]
9.1 TR outlined the background to this issue. HMRC had announced changes to the Advisory Fuel Rates. CIOT, ICAEW, IPPM and others made representations to HMRC that the publication of the rates gave 3 days’ notice for employers to implement them from 1 February 2007 and therefore there was concern as to how employers would be able to implement the changes at such short notice.
9.2 Subsequently Mike Shipp had written to CIOT to say that employers which had practical difficulties implementing the new rates could continue to operate the old rates for a further month. This would allow time for drivers and employers to adjust to the new rates without prejudicing those employees who have to reimburse their employers for private fuel bought with a fuel card.
RD raised an issue concerning adjustments to SA partnership Returns. RD will contact OCC secretariat.
Next meeting: 14 November 2007, New Nelson Room, Somerset House
