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HMRC launch new Charter

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A new Charter setting out what individuals, businesses and other groups dealing with HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) can expect from the department, as well as what it expects from them, has been launched.

Under the Charter, HMRC give a commitment to: respect you; help and support you to get things right; treat you as honest; treat you even-handedly; be professional and act with integrity; tackle people who deliberately break the rules and challenge those who bend the rules; protect your information and respect your privacy; accept that someone else can represent you; and do all it can to keep the cost of dealing with HMRC as low as possible.

In return, HMRC expect you to be honest, respect staff, and take care to get things right.

The Charter also provides pointers to further information on your rights, where you can get help and support, and HMRC’s role.

Welcoming the Charter, Financial Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms said:

“The Government is committed to making the tax system as useable and accessible as possible, for individuals, businesses and all the other organisations who interact with HMRC. The new Charter will go a long way to helping achieve that goal.”

In a podcast launched to help publicise the Charter, HMRC Permanent Secretary for Tax Dave Hartnett says:

“The Charter’s key aim is to improve the relationship between HMRC and our customers, and we obviously have a crucial role in making that possible. But we can’t do it all on our own. Both parties have a part to play, and that’s why the Charter sets out people’s rights and their responsibilities.”

The four-page document, entitled “HMRC – Your Charter”, can be downloaded from the HMRC website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/charter.

The free, five-minute podcast can be downloaded from HMRC’s podcast pages at www.hmrc.gov.uk/podcasts.

Comments
Malcolm Swallow  - What a waste of space….pt1 2009-11-29 18:03:01
There is sooooooo little here it is a lie to call it a “Charter”. And the header “what businesses dealing with HMRC can expect from the department” is a laugh. What planet do these suits inhabit? I was hoping for something along the lines of…… HMRC believes in treating taxpayers fairly. In order to achieve this we will:- 1. ensure all tax offices are open between 08.30-18.00 m-f 2. outside these times national contact centres for each main discipline will take enquiries, and be able to access tax payers records 3. all correspondence received will be at least acknowledged with a specific case officer reference within 14 days of receipt 4. no incoming mail will be ignored 5. an email communication system will be installed by xx 2010 for tax payers to communicate with us.
Malcolm Swallow  - What a waste of space….pt2 2009-11-29 18:03:41
6. The 64-8 form will be re-designed into ‘english’, and allow tax payers to indicate simply which methods of communication and tax areas agents will be authorised for. HMRC will cease the practice of throwing away every other 64-8. 7. All tax departments will publish on the central website an index of telephone numbers, which will include a ‘real’ telephone number so that mobile phone users can call them without it costing a fortune on 0845/0800 numbers. 8. This will also contain a fax number for each office. 9. All fax machines will be kept operating, the practice of turning them off or having no paper in to fob off taxpayers will cease. When a tax payer rings up and says “your fax machine is not working three times” we will no longer ignore the taxpayer or tell him to “just keep trying”, we will investigate the problem and rectify it without delay. 10. all staff required to have telephone contact with taxpayers will have a good conversational command of English, and be able to express themselves clearly on the telephone, and will have a basic knowledge of UK geography. 11. all telephone systems will no longer refuse calls when busy. The queuing systems will ensure that calls are dealt with on arrival basis not at random. Our target for picking up a call and talking to you is “within 30 secs”. The performance of every tax office against this standard will be published in a national league tenable. If Euston Corporation Tax Office and Sefton Employers PAYE ever get off joint bottom of this table then we will know that real progress is being made. 12. If any caller wishes to make a complaint, our staff will no longer wriggle and squirm to avoid allowing the complaint. They will, without argument, put the person through to a complaints team WHO WILL ACTUALLY BE KEEN TO RESOLVE THE COMPLAINT and (take over the phone) full details and make sure the query is dealt with professionally. Our complaints helpsheet will in future also contain a central complaints contact address/telephone/fax number so that we no longer make it as hard as possible to submit complaints. 13. Our online systems will no longer be “up-graded” across key filing dates e.g. 31st January. 14. We want tax-payers to file everything electronically with us. We are allocating online filing credentials to all tax-payers, and will send these to you. For example so that no one will ever have to fight the onslime VAT system again just to file a vat return. In future all filings will be eeeeasy to do. In return we expect taxpayers to treat our staff with respect, and deal with them honestly. I may have a missed a few points?
Malcolm Swallow  - What a waste of space….pt3 2009-11-29 18:07:08
10. all staff required to have telephone contact with taxpayers will have a good conversational command of English, and be able to express themselves clearly on the telephone, and will have a basic knowledge of UK geography. 11. all telephone systems will no longer refuse calls when busy. The queuing systems will ensure that calls are dealt with on arrival basis not at random. Our target for picking up a call and talking to you is “within 30 secs”. The performance of every tax office against this standard will be published in a national league tenable. If Euston Corporation Tax Office and Sefton Employers PAYE ever get off joint bottom of this table then we will know that real progress is being made.
Malcolm Swallow  - What a waste of space….pt4 2009-11-29 18:06:42
12. If any caller wishes to make a complaint, our staff will no longer wriggle and squirm to avoid allowing the complaint. They will, without argument, put the person through to a complaints team WHO WILL ACTUALLY BE KEEN TO RESOLVE THE COMPLAINT and (take over the phone) full details and make sure the query is dealt with professionally. Our complaints helpsheet will in future also contain a central complaints contact address/telephone/fax number so that we no longer make it as hard as possible to submit complaints. 13. Our online systems will no longer be “up-graded” across key filing dates e.g. 31st January. 14. We want tax-payers to file everything electronically with us. We are allocating online filing credentials to all tax-payers, and will send these to you. For example so that no one will ever have to fight the onslime VAT system again just to file a vat return. In future all filings will be eeeeasy to do. In return we expect taxpayers to treat our staff with respect, and deal with them honestly. I may have a missed a few points?
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HM Revenue & Customs
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Article Added Thursday, 12 November 2009
 

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