HMRC

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) was formed on the 18 April 2005, following the merger of Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise Departments. Work is still continuing on its office restructuring programme. HMRC is here to ensure the correct tax is paid at the right time, whether this relates to payment of taxes received by the department or entitlement to benefits paid.

HMRC collect and administer:
Direct taxes - paid by you or your business on money you earn or capital you gain.
  • Capital Gains Tax.
  • Corporation Tax.
  • Income Tax.
  • Inheritance Tax.
  • National Insurance Contributions.
Indirect taxes - paid by you or your business on money spent on goods or services.
  • Excise duties.
  • Insurance Premium Tax.
  • Petroleum Revenue Tax.
  • Stamp Duty.
  • Stamp Duty Land Tax.
  • Stamp Duty Reserve Tax.
  • VAT.
HMRC pay and administer:
  • Child Benefit
  • Child Trust Fund
  • Tax Credits.
HMRC claim to protect you by enforcing and administering:
  • Border and frontier protection
  • Environmental taxes
  • National Minimum Wage enforcement
  • Recovery of student loans.
HMRC are the parent department to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and its commercial arm - District Valuer Services (DVS).

The HMRC Vision

Launched on 3 November 2008 the HMRC Vision states the Department's purpose, says where it's going and describes how its people will deal with customers and with each other.

HMRC Purpose, Vision and Way

Our Purpose

  • We make sure that the money is available to fund the UK's public services
  • We also help families and individuals with targeted financial support

Our Vision

  • We will close the tax gap, our customers will feel that the tax system is simple for them and even-handed, and we will be seen as a highly professional and efficient organisation

Our Way

  • We understand our customers and their needs
  • We make it easy for our customers to get things right
  • We believe that most of our customers are honest and we treat everyone with respect
  • We are passionate in helping those who need it and relentless in pursuing those who bend or break the rules
  • We recognise that we have privileged access to information and we will protect it
  • We behave professionally and with integrity
  • We do our own jobs well and take pride in helping our colleagues to succeed
  • We develop the skills and tools we need to do our jobs well
  • We drive continuous improvement in everything we do.
The Charter

HMRC's role in their own words



We make sure that the money is available to fund the UK’s public services by collecting taxes and duties as laid down by Parliament. We help families and individuals with targeted financial support.

We want to give you a service that is even-handed, accurate and based on mutual trust and respect. We also want to make it as easy as we can for you to get things right.

For more information go to The HMRC Vision
 
This Charter explains what you can expect from us and what we expect from you.
For more details please see Your Charter (PDF 332K).

The first report on progress made by HMRC in demonstrating the standards of behaviour and values in the Charter is published - Charter Report 2012 (PDF 51K).

Your rights

What you can expect from us:
  1. Respect you
  2. Help and support you to get things right
  3. Treat you as honest
  4. Treat you even-handedly
  5. Be professional and act with integrity
  6. Tackle people who deliberately break the rules and challenge those who bend the rules
  7. Protect your information and respect your privacy
  8. Accept that someone else can represent you
  9. Do all we can to keep the cost of dealing with us as low as possible

Your obligations

What we expect from you:
  1. Be honest
  2. Respect our staff
  3. Take care to get things right

1 Respect you

We recognise that you might be concerned about how we will deal with you.
We will:
  • treat you with courtesy and consideration
  • listen to your concerns
  • answer your questions in a way you can understand
  • try to understand your circumstances
  • make you aware of your rights, including your right to appeal our decisions
  • tell you how to exercise your right to appeal against our decisions.

2 Help and support you to get things right

We want to give you as much certainty as we can that you are paying or claiming the right amount.
We will:
  • provide information that helps you understand what you have to do and when you have to do it
  • provide information that clearly explains the taxes, duties, exemptions, allowances, reliefs and tax credits that we are responsible for
  • process the information you give us as quickly and accurately as we can
  • put mistakes right as soon as we can.

3 Treat you as honest

We know that the great majority of people want to get things right. Unless we have a good reason not to,
we will:
  • presume you are telling us the truth
  • accept that you will pay what you owe and only claim what you are entitled to
  • explain why we need to ask you questions and why we have decided to check your records
  • only question what you tell us if we have good reason to.

4 Treat you even-handedly

We will be even-handed in the way we deal with you. We will take into account your circumstances and provide a consistent service. If you need help we will also give you the appropriate support so you can meet your obligations.
We will:
  • act within the law and our published guidance
  • help you understand your legal rights
  • explain what you can do if you disagree with our decisions or want to make a complaint
  • provide you with information in a way that meets your particular needs
  • consider any financial difficulties you may be having.

5 Be professional and act with integrity

Whenever you deal with us we will take responsibility for our actions and behave in a professional way.
We will:
  • act with integrity
  • make sure that you are dealt with by people who have the right level of expertise
  • make decisions in accordance with the law and published guidance and explain them clearly to you
  • respond to your enquiries and resolve any problems as soon as we can
  • let you know how appeals, investigations or complaints are progressing.

6 Tackle people who deliberately break the rules and challenge those who bend the rules

The great majority of people are honest and get things right. We want to protect them from the effects of people deliberately breaking the rules. We will also challenge those who engage in avoidance, deliberately bending the rules. We will treat genuine mistakes, acting without reasonable care and deliberately misleading actions differently from each other.
We will:
  • identify people who are not paying what they owe or claiming more than they should
  • recover the money they owe and charge interest and penalties where appropriate
  • distinguish between legitimately trying to pay the lowest amount and bending the rules through tax avoidance
  • use our powers reasonably.

7 Protect your information and respect your privacy

We recognise we have privileged access to your information. We will only ask you for information we need to do our jobs. We will protect that information.
We will:
  • protect information we obtain, receive or hold about you
  • explain why we need information, if you ask us to
  • only allow our staff to see information when they need it to do their job
  • give you the information we hold about you when you ask for it, as long as the law lets us
  • only share or release information about you when the law lets us and we need to
  • respect your legal rights when we visit premises.

8 Accept that someone else can represent you

You may want someone else to deal with us on your behalf. To protect your privacy, we will only deal with them if they have been authorised to represent you.
We will:
  • respect your representative’s right to act for you and deal with them appropriately
You should always check that your representative has the right experience and knowledge to help you.

9 Do all we can to keep the cost of dealing with us as low as possible

We aim to take up as little of your time and money as we can.
We will:
  • try to make our services straightforward and easy to access
  • make it as cheap as we can for you to contact us
  • explain clearly what we need from you
  • do our best to give you complete, accurate and consistent advice
  • do our best to get things right first time.

Your obligations

What we expect from you:

1 Be honest

We need you to be honest with us. If someone else acts for you, we expect them to be honest too.
We expect you to:
  • be truthful, open and act within the law
  • give us accurate information
  • give us all the relevant facts
  • tell us as soon as you can if you think you have made a mistake.

2 Respect our staff

Our staff will respect you and we ask you to show them respect too. If someone else acts for you, we expect the same respect from them.
We expect you to:
  • be polite
  • accept that we will not tolerate rude or abusive behaviour.

3 Take care to get things right

We need you to take responsibility for getting things right, even if you have authorised someone to act on your behalf.
We expect you to:
  • take reasonable care when you complete tax returns and fill out forms
  • send us tax returns and forms on time
  • make payments on time
  • respond in good time if we ask you to do something
  • talk to us if there is anything that you are not sure about or if you are having difficulty meeting your obligations
  • tell us if you have any particular needs so we can take them into account
  • tell us about any changes in your circumstances that will affect your payments or claims
  • keep adequate records that support what you tell us and hold them for as long as the law says you need to.

More information

For more information about what we do, your rights, and where you can get help and support, please follow the links below.
To find out:
We work closely with the Department for Work and Pensions to support you. You can find more information about this on the Directgov website (Opens in new window)

15 comments:

  1. I've just gone to the bank and my tax credits was £150.00 short telephoned them thinking it was a mistake and as I have had no correspondence to say my payments are being reduced and aqpparently they have reduced my payments and not bothered to tell me yet. I am now going to incur bank charges for unpaid direct debits can't afford to buy milk or nappies for my baby or feed my other two children I asked them what did they bsuggest should I put my children in care for a week until I get paid at the end of the month and can afford to feed them again?? What a bunch of tossers why do I bother working!!!

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    Replies
    1. You should have thought about how the child would be funded before getting pregnant and not "relying" on government care to look after you.

      Means testing before getting pregnant is a MUST if this country is to survive!

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    2. Yes sure paulsir...... who the fuck r to talk

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    3. So you think children are just for the wealthy? You sound like such a eugenicist it's sickening

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    4. plenty of people raise children and most of those people are not wealthy. What Paul is saying is that you shouldn't have more children than you can afford. "can't afford to buy milk or nappies for my baby or feed my other two children" LOL shouldn't have had the 'other two children' if you can't afford milk or nappies without taxpayer money.

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  2. Tried the HMRC websaite re Child benefit for four consecutive days and it is still down.
    Cannot send them an email as it is rejected
    Letters from Child benefit take at least 16 weeks to answer apparently
    Helpline no help as don't kep records of correspondence and don't have internal phone book
    Impossible to communicate with by phone letter or email...

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  3. I was just charged £11.83 for "customs & vat charge" for STICKERS FROM THE US that I paid $24.45(£12.00) STICKERS!!! These new charges says that anything NOT from the EU must pay £8.00 handling fee plus vat THIS ENSURES THAT WE THE CITIZENS OF BRITAIN CAN ONLY RECEIVE ITEMS FROM THE BLOODY EU WHY IS OUR GOVERNMENT TRYING TO ISOLATE US! THE GOVT'S HATRED FOR THE US HAS TURNED THE POST OFFICE INTO NAZI GERMANY! THIS IS SO RIDICULOUS I HAVE NO WORDS!!!!!! I AM GOING TO SEND THIS FORM TO GET THE MONIES BACK BUT IM TOLD I SHOULDNT BOTHER BECAUSE THEY NEVER RETURN MONEY!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is not HMRC's fault - that is Government policy.
      By all means slag of HMRC - but the Government sets tax rares (including VAT). HMRC can only enforce what the Government tells them to.

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  4. For the second year in a row I have received an Unpaid Income Tax letter for my terminally ill wife who has not been able to work for several years. Last year's was delivered to her hospital bed! I received an apology and was told that the bill would be waivered. My wife has a degenerative brain disorder which has left her unable to communicate with us. I am in the process of obtaining Guardianship. I have tried on several occasions to phone HMRC but on each occasion I was put on hold for over 30 minutes. I gave up. I have tried to find an email contact, but, so far, unsuccessfully.

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  5. so far I have been waiting on the phone for a good half hour and they're still asking me to hold on one of there advisors will be with me soon????.
    what a fucking rip off.

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  6. After realising HMRC had been using an incorrect tax-code, and owed me in the region of £2,000, I tried to ring to ask for my tax to be re-calculated. After 30 minutes of crackly muzak, I was still being told one of their advisors would answer asap. What advisors?? ARE there any? I'm sure it must be a thankless job, but HMRC are quick enough to take the money. Clearly the service is no better than a year ago when, attempting to deal with my claim tax-credits, I phoned repeatedly and never once got through. Even my MP was unable to help. Absolutely unacceptable 'service'.

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  7. I'm one of those hovering on the borderline between paying tax or not (my pensions are derisory). Last year HMRC didn't send me a tax code till I chased them in May as my pension providers were charging me tax (pennies, but it's the principle of the thing). They sorted it, but only after several fruitless phone calls. This year, tax threshold risen again. I'm definitely a non-taxpayer, yet no tax code has arrived, even though my husband got his in January. My affairs are simple: god help people whose are complicated. The whole thing went to pot when Inland Rev merged with Customs. Shameful.

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  8. Company I used to work for in a second job that I had to take up in order to get by screwed up my tax and I was left owing hundreds in unpaid tax, which I had to somehow find the money to pay - why should I have to carry the can for this while these employers are allowed to get away with it?

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  9. Its sickening what we get taxed to what we get in return. I am 21. Work 45 hours. Earn 400 a week only see 310 of that. I do not claim benefits. I never have and I have never used the NHS. Previously traveled around Australia for years. I'd be much happier being able to opt out of the nhs and go private that lose my wage to fund that fuck pit

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    Replies
    1. NHS only forms about 18% of the national budget, rest is likely squandered by way of government handouts.

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