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01 Aug 2011
AN ERROR by HM Revenue & Customs led to a single compensation payout of £1.2m to a group of taxpayers in the 2009/10 tax year.
A parliament answer from Exchequer secretary to the Treasury David Gauke on 7 July revealed that HMRC made a single, exceptional payment of £1.2m as part of its ex-gratia financial redress policy. The policy in total cost £3.74m that year, compared with £1.41m in 2010/11.
Further reading
HMRC refused to provide details of the payment following a freedom of information request by Accountancy Age. It claimed that disclosing details would breach client confidentiality.
The reply to the request stated: "What I can tell you is that the £1.2m was a single payment, paid in respect of a group of customers. We believe, however, that providing any more detail might breach our strict legal obligations to maintain taxpayer confidentiality, which is why the information is being withheld."
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Visitor comments Add your comment
Well now we know why repayments have been slow
BUT
I would like to know why / how ANY senior managers within HMRC can be entitled to a single penny of 'bonus' payments when errors on such a scale are being made.
Its bad enough in private companies that we can choose not to avail ourselves of
but we all HAVE to deal with HMRC no matter how incompetent and unprofessional they are.
Posted by: Eleanor, 02 Aug 2011 | 18:47
NOT SURPRISED
Not surprised at all to hear of this spectacular error. Main problem when dealing with HMRC on these matters is that most of the compensation arises from them trying to defend the indefensible. Classic case at present, HMRC finally admitted they issued an invalid Schedule 36 Notice to one of my clients after around 6 months or so of arguing, but still will not accept a compensation claim for our wasted time. What sort of air do they breathe???
Posted by: Ian Gillard, 03 Aug 2011 | 19:52