HMRC's powering up

Dave Hartnett, HMRC

Powering upAlthough the legislative process for new powers and safeguards continues apace I find myself thinking more and more about their implementation. It is vitally important that we get this right and learn lessons from the introduction of self-assessment, where we ended up with more complex arrangements than anyone had envisaged. We need to ensure that the legislative aims survive intact through the implementation process.

That is why I am very pleased that ministers have decided to set up a forum to oversee implementation. This will enable us to work with representative bodies to gauge the impact on taxpayers, tax advisers and HMRC staff.

I will be chairing the forum which will report to the financial secretary. Those reports will be published, so if we get things wrong there will rightly be no hiding place for HMRC. But I hope, as well, that people will acknowledge when we are getting it right. The balance on the forum will be weighted firmly in favour of the private sector representatives.

I do not see the forum as being exclusively about the way that HMRC handles implementation. When the powers review started, the minister said she wanted a department that felt different to the predecessor organisations.

HMRC fully recognises that we must ensure that the new powers are used proportionately, consistently and reasonably and that taxpayers have the protections they need. The role of authorised officers, who will determine the HMRC view of penalties, will be crucial and I have been taking a personal interest in how our plans are developing.

But everyone needs to participate if, for instance, we are to deliver compliance checks that really are completed quickly ­ months not years, days not weeks. HMRC officers must not prolong checks to ‘get a result’, taxpayers need to understand that they must take reasonable care and advisers who do not provide information until the last moment must realise it may contradict their clients’ desire for early closure. We must not waste this opportunity to build trust and change for the better relationships within the tax system.

Dave Hartnett is permanent secretary for tax at HMRC