HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is piloting telephone 'education' for owners of new businesses. This involves calling the 'customer' and offering "...to talk them through some of the main things they need to know as a new business and to signpost them to the available help online".
The calls will not involve discussions of the individual's tax affairs. HMRC advisers making the calls will be using a call list, rather than using 'live' systems.
It is difficult to be critical of an initiative which is supposedly designed to support business taxpayers in complying with their tax obligations. I just wonder if this is the most efficient use of HMRC resources.
The owners of new businesses will invariably be frantically busy trying to make their new enterprises a success, or at least earn them a living. An unannounced call (I am assuming that calls will not be arranged in advance) from HMRC is hardly likely to be a welcome diversion in most cases. The business person will probably not be in the ideal state of mind be 'educated' by HMRC in this way, so the efficacy of the approach must be called into question.
In addition, as I have mentioned in previous editorials, many taxpayers have a certain fear and trepidation about HMRC contact. Some may even be suspicious about HMRC's motives, and wonder if they are being targeted for HMRC scrutiny.
If HMRC wants to use the telephone as a medium to contacting taxpayers, why not open a helpline, available out of business hours and at weekends, and to publicise this facility as a free and convenient resource for new business owners?
Perhaps it is two cheers for this new HMRC initiative, instead of the usual three cheers.
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