19 February 2024
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has released a new consultation and a response to previous consultations around the Tax Administration Framework Review (TAFR).
The new consultation, The Tax Administration Framework Review: enquiry and assessment powers, penalties, safeguards, looks at what HMRC can do to reform the powers it has to enforce and encourage compliance. These powers serve the main purpose of ensuring taxpayer rights are protected and that correct tax revenues are collected.
This consultation is open until 9 May 2024. Have your say by responding to the questions posed or let us know your thoughts for inclusion in our response by using the “Have Your Say” box on the news pages.
Also released was the outcome to the previous consultation, Simplifying and modernising HMRC’s Income Tax services through the tax administration framework review, which closed on 7 June 2024.
The summary of responses covers the questions raised detailing how the 39 written responses viewed the proposals. CIPP members can read our response on the consultation responses page.
As a result of these responses HMRC seeks to improve the tax system in a number of ways. For a full breakdown please see the documentation released, however below is an excerpt from the response showing where HMRC believes improvement can be made:
“The improvements include:
- putting taxpayers on the correct tax code more quickly following a change of circumstances;
- the development of a digital self-serve tool that will allow taxpayers to view their Income Tax position and claim or declare income, allowances, benefits, and deductions;
- improvements to HMRC’s ‘Check if you need to send a Self Assessment tax return’ tool;
- improving and expanding digital registration services for ITSA;
- continuing to review the criteria HMRC uses to determine who needs to file an ITSA return.
The government intends to make some legislative amendments to facilitate the increased use of digital channels. These include changes to:
- allow HMRC to send specified correspondence to taxpayers digitally by default, unless they elect to continue to receive paper communications
- require taxpayers to provide up to date electronic contact details to HMRC
- allow HMRC more flexibility in how it communicates tax code changes to taxpayers.”
Information provided in this news article may be subject to change. Please make note of the date of publication to ensure that you are viewing up to date information.