HMRC’s quarterly performance report and Outcome Delivery Plan published
Last month HMRC published provisional performance data for quarter 4 of 2020–21 together with its Outcome Delivery Plan for 2021–22. HMRC’s full annual report, which would usually be published this month, is not now expected to be published until the autumn.
HMRC also published a Policy Paper “Tax debt, government lending schemes and Company Voluntary Arrangements” (“CVAs”), setting out further detail on their approach to tax debts, specifically in CVA cases and where businesses have used Government lending schemes. The Institute continues to engage with HMRC in respect of services levels and its approach to collection of debt.
The accompanying message from HMRC in respect of its quarterly performance report is as follows:-
“Our provisional 2020–21 data reflects the vital role we have played at the heart of the government’s COVID-19 response. Through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, we supported over 11 million furloughed jobs. We also provided £24.5 billion of support to 2.8 million self-employed people through the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
In unprecedented circumstances, we worked to strike a careful balance between bringing in revenue for the UK’s public services and prioritising customer support. By the end of the financial year, our provisional figures show we collected £585 billion in tax – lower than the £633.4 billion collected last financial year, but broadly in line with forecasts made by the Office for Budgetary Responsibility.
We kept our core services running throughout the pandemic and saw record high customer satisfaction with our digital services of 85.2%. We also moved more than 5,000 customer advisers onto our COVID-19 helpline, with average customer waiting times reducing from just over 3 minutes to 1 minute and 16 seconds by the end of the financial year. Our customs and international trade helpline was expanded as the UK left the EU transition period and provided an average speed of answer of less than 5 seconds in February and March.
As a result of prioritising these phone lines and delivering the COVID-19 support schemes, wait times on some of our other helplines have been longer than we would like – but the percentage of calls answered has risen consistently since the start of 2021–22 and in June reached the highest rate for more than a year.
As the UK gradually emerges from the pandemic, our Outcome Delivery Plan 2021–22 sets out what we will do to help businesses and individuals get back on their feet and get the economy moving again, while ensuring the right tax revenue still comes in. Our long-term focus is on building a trusted, modern tax administration system – one that will be fully digital, work closer to real-time and provide the UK with more resilience in times of crisis.”
The following items were also published on GOV.UK:-
