The House of Commons ‘Treasury Select committee recommended in September 2011 that HMRC should work closely with the professional bodies, tax charities and businesses to improve the end-to-end experience of dealing with HMRC.

After a review of processes over the past two months, which has involved visits by HMRC to firms of members of all the professional bodies, and visits by firms to HMRC post rooms, HMRC have committed to:

  • Working together to find ways of avoiding employers incurring and building up end of year filing penalties without being aware of them.
  • Launching an email pilot to a select number of agents to give a detailed understanding of the benefits, its wider application and fit with the Agent strategy, building on the work already done by the Working Together Team.
  • Working together to identify and develop more effective communication of HMRC changes and initiatives with front line agents.
  • Improving the processing of forms 64-8. This will include a review of the end-to-end process, starting at the agent's office and the type of form used, through to where the forms are sent to, and how quickly they reach the correct destination for processing.
  • Identifying the root cause of agents frustrations with HMRC telephone services and work together on the solutions.

Representatives from: the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the Association of Accounting Technicians, the Association of Taxation Technicians, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, Tax Aid, and Tax Help for Older People are all involved in the project. The aim being to work jointly through issues identified to see both how HMRC can improve and streamline its processes and what agents need to do to ensure they run as smoothly as possible.