We are sharing this update from ACCA, our professional body, for the interest of clients and contacts. The content is (c) ACCA
HMRC’s Charter Stakeholder Group shares its latest assessment on how well the organisation is performing
ACCA sits on HMRC’s Charter Stakeholder Group and shares your feedback The following report follows the survey from earlier in the year that many of you responded to.
Thank you all for your feedback, views and thoughts, which help us in the Charter and other work with HMRC. The following is drawn from the HMRC annual report and is the latest assessment of how well HMRC is performing:
We have considered HMRC’s performance in 2023-24 against its Charter. To provide evidence-based feedback, we undertook a survey of agents and taxpayers over a four-week period in February and March 2024. We received 1,647 responses in total, including 1,330 from agents, and 268 from individual and business taxpayers.
The survey repeated the previous year’s questions, asking respondents to give a score out of 10 for HMRC’s performance against each of the Charter standards, with 1 being the lowest possible score and 10 being the highest. We also asked, for each standard, what HMRC does well, and what they could improve.
As with last year’s report, complaints about HMRC’s service levels dominate the feedback and heavily influence the scores. ‘Being responsive’ scored the lowest of the Charter standards, with an average score of just 2.4 out of 10. ‘Making things easy’ and ‘getting things right’ scored slightly higher, but still poorly, at 2.8 and 3.5 respectively. Consistent with last year, these three standards are by far the lowest scoring, which is disappointing as between them they represent the ‘health’ of the tax system.
Typical feedback indicated that, while straight-forward issues are often dealt with well, more complex issues are difficult to resolve: ‘Most agents contact the Revenue because they require assistance with something beyond the basic understanding that is generally covered online.
The remaining five Charter standards typically address the context in which HMRC operates, and these scores are higher, particularly around mutual respect and data security, the latter scoring the highest average score in the survey of 6.8.
Our survey also addressed awareness of the Charter, and HMRC’s accountability against it. 78% of agents were aware of the HMRC Charter, compared to 68% of taxpayers.
Below are some of the key scores provided by members, but the full report can be found at GOV.uk.
Getting things right
HMRC received a score of 3.5 out of 10 (3.4 last year), with agents scoring HMRC marginally higher (3.6) than taxpayers (3.3). It was noticeable that the score that received the most votes was 1 out of 10, given by almost a quarter of the respondents.
Making things easy
The HMRC Charter commitment to Making things easy was the second worst performing area with an average score of 2.8 out of 10 (2.7 last year), with agents scoring HMRC marginally lower (2.7) than taxpayers (3.0). 38% of respondents scored HMRC 1 out of 10.
Being responsive
This was again the lowest scoring Charter standard, with an average of 2.4 out of 10 (2.3 last year), with agents scoring HMRC marginally lower (2.3) than taxpayers (2.6). 49% of respondents scored HMRC just 1 out of 10. Out of the 785 freeform comments regarding the question ‘In what parts of this standard does HMRC perform well?’, over one-third said ‘none’.
Treating you fairly
Here HMRC scored an average of 5.0 out of 10 (4.8 last year), with agents scoring HMRC slightly higher (5.4) than taxpayers (4.0).
Being aware of your personal situation
Respondents scored HMRC an average of 4.1 out of 10 (4.1 last year), with agents scoring higher (4.3) than taxpayers (3.3). 43% of taxpayers responding scored HMRC 1 out of 10. These results are almost identical to last year’s.
Recognising that someone can represent you
HMRC scored an average of 5.7 out of 10 (5.1 last year), with agents scoring HMRC slightly higher (5.8) than taxpayers (5.1).
Keeping your data secure
Taxpayers and agents generally consider that HMRC is meeting this Charter standard, scoring an average of 6.8 out of 10 (6.5 last year). Again, agents scored HMRC slightly higher (7.0) than taxpayers themselves (5.8). The majority of respondents were satisfied with how HMRC keeps data secure.
Mutual respect
Here, HMRC scored an average of 5.6 (5.4 last year), and again agents scored HMRC higher (5.8) than taxpayers themselves (4.7).
ACCA is thankful to its members for their feedback and comments on the various areas covered in the report and is always keen to hear from members on matters affecting the profession. Members can get involved by sending any feedback to [email protected] or signing up to our Member Insights Community.
Read the full report of the Charter Stakeholder Group and HMRC’s annual report and accounts.
