18 July 2023
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has now published ‘HMRC annual report and accounts: 2022 to 2023’ and ‘HMRC's annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023: performance overview’.
It has been reported that HMRC has generated £814 billion in total tax revenues in 2022/23 – an 11.3% increase on the previous year. In addition HMRC has protected £34 billion through compliance work that would otherwise have been lost to the Exchequer through non-compliance. It costs HMRC only half a penny to collect every pound of tax revenue.
HMRC identifies that the customer service levels haven’t been where they should be over this period and further recognises the difficulties this is still causing some customers and agents. There are a number of factors affecting this – from the impact of higher inflation to an increase in customers with more complex tax affairs – all of which are making it harder for HMRC to serve customers in the same way that have been in the past.
HMRC states that it will only improve the customer experience by making real and meaningful changes – not only in services that are delivered but also in changing how customers engage with HMRC. This entails moving an ever-increasing number of customers onto digital services, so they can manage their tax affairs quickly and easily online, without the need to contact HMRC. This will enable HMRC to focus resources on providing support to those who need extra help, and those who cannot use digital services, while improving the experience for all customers.
The Annual report also includes a new estimate for error and fraud in the research and development (R&D) tax reliefs. The HMRC’s Approach to R&D Tax Reliefs has also been published, setting out more about the scale and shape of non-compliance in these schemes, the action taken by the government to date, as well as HMRC’s compliance approach.
Professionals and the wider community can give HMRC feedback on the content and presentation of the annual report by completing the short reader survey, here.
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