ICAS ICAS logo

Quicklinks

  1. About Us

    Find out about who we are and what we do here at ICAS.

  2. Find a CA

    Search our directory of individual CAs and Member organisations by name, location and professional criteria.

  3. CA Magazine

    View the latest issues of the dedicated magazine for ICAS Chartered Accountants.

  4. Contact Us

    Get in touch with ICAS by phone, email or post, with dedicated contacts for Members, Students and firms.

Login
  • Annual renewal
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Find a CA
  1. About us
    1. Governance
  2. Members
    1. Become a member
    2. Newly qualified
    3. Manage my membership
    4. Benefits of membership
    5. Careers support
    6. Mentoring
    7. CA Wellbeing
    8. More for Members
    9. Area networks
    10. International communities
    11. Get involved
    12. Top Young CAs
    13. Career breaks
    14. ICAS podcast
    15. Newly admitted members 2022
    16. Newly admitted members 2023
  3. CA Students
    1. Student information
    2. Student resources
    3. Learning requirements
    4. Learning updates
    5. Learning blog
    6. Totum Pro | Student discount card
    7. CA Student wellbeing
  4. Become a CA
    1. How to become a CA
    2. Routes to becoming a CA
    3. CA Stories
    4. Find a training agreement
    5. Why become a CA
    6. Qualification information
    7. University exemptions
  5. Employers
    1. Become an Authorised Training Office
    2. Resources for Authorised Training Offices
    3. Professional entry
    4. Apprenticeships
  6. Find a CA
  7. ICAS events
    1. CA Summit
  8. CA magazine
  9. Insight
    1. Finance + Trust
    2. Finance + Technology
    3. Finance + EDI
    4. Finance + Mental Fitness
    5. Finance + Leadership
    6. Finance + Sustainability
  10. Professional resources
    1. Anti-money laundering
    2. Audit and assurance
    3. Brexit
    4. Business and governance
    5. Charities
    6. Coronavirus
    7. Corporate and financial reporting
    8. Cyber security
    9. Ethics
    10. Insolvency
    11. ICAS Research
    12. Pensions
    13. Practice
    14. Public sector
    15. Sustainability
    16. Tax
  11. CPD - professional development
    1. CPD courses and qualifications
    2. CPD news and updates
    3. CPD support and advice
  12. Regulation
    1. Complaints and sanctions
    2. Regulatory authorisations
    3. Guidance and help sheets
    4. Regulatory monitoring
  13. CA jobs
    1. CA jobs partner: Rutherford Cross
    2. Resources for your job search
    3. Advertise with CA jobs
    4. Hays | A Trusted ICAS CA Jobs Partner
    5. Azets | What's your ambition?
  14. Work at ICAS
    1. Business centres
    2. Meet our team
    3. Benefits
    4. Vacancies
    5. Imagine your career at ICAS
  15. Contact us
    1. Technical and regulation queries
    2. ICAS logo request

Have your say on HMRC's Charter

  • LinkedIn (opens new window)
  • Twitter (opens new window)
Susan Cattell By Susan Cattell, Head of Tax Technical Policy

29 April 2020

Main Points:

  • The HMRC Charter sets out the standards of behaviour to which HMRC will aspire when dealing with taxpayers.
  • HMRC has published a consultation on updating the Charter and measuring HMRC performance against the standards.
  • ICAS would like your views on the proposed new Charter

Susan Cattell outlines HMRC’s proposals for updating its charter – which sets out the standards of behaviour taxpayers can expect from HMRC - and invites feedback from ICAS members.

What is the HMRC Charter?

Finance Act 2009 introduced a requirement for HMRC to publish a Charter which must include “standards of behavior and values to which HMRC will aspire when dealing with people in the exercise of their functions”. The legislation (in s16A of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005) also requires HMRC to regularly review the Charter and publish revisions, or revised versions, when it considers it appropriate to do so.

Recommendations for changes to the Charter

The House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee in its 2018 report “The Powers of HMRC: Treating Taxpayers Fairly” noted that the evidence it received suggested that HMRC was not always living up to the standards set in the Charter and that government pressure on HMRC to collect more tax with fewer staff might be pressuring staff to take a more aggressive approach and impairing their ability to  be fair to taxpayers. It made several recommendations linked to the Charter, including that the Charter should be amended “to clarify HMRC’s responsibilities towards unrepresented taxpayers including that issues are clearly set out, legislation is explained and rights to review and appeals are made accessible”.

More recently Sir Amyas Morse in his Loan Charge Review recommended that the Charter should be reviewed “to set higher expectations of performance during interactions with members of the public, and to ensure that staff are trained to meet these expectations.”

HMRC began work to review the current Charter in September 2019. In developing its own proposals for an updated version, it has undertaken several actions, including:

  • Reviewing existing insight, such as HMRC’s annual customer surveys;
  • Researching other customer charters and customer promises in other organisations;
  • Holding round table events with HMRC staff and taxpayers;
  • Consulting with internal and external stakeholder forums; and
  • Discussing the Charter and HMRC’s obligations with HMRC’s Customer Experience Committee (formerly the Charter Committee).

HMRC’s proposals for the Charter

HMRC has published a consultation setting out its proposed new Charter and inviting input. Based on the work carried out so far HMRC believes that the updated Charter should:

  • Be short and direct with simple accessible language;
  • Embody or represent HMRC’s values which are: “we are professional, we act with integrity, we show respect and we are innovative”;
  • Be more focussed on HMRC’s commitments to “customers”, whilst not losing sight of “customers’” obligations to HMRC.

It is not therefore surprising that the proposed new Charter is shorter than the current one. The clear split between the taxpayers’ rights (what they can expect from HMRC) and their obligations (what HMRC expects from taxpayers) has disappeared. Instead, the new Charter is divided into two parts:

  • A short section on “Working with you to get tax right” which notes that HMRC works in partnership with taxpayers to collect the tax that pays for the UK’s public services.
  • A longer section “What we want our service to be all about” split into items covering:
    • Making things easy
    • Getting things right
    • Being responsive
    • Treating you fairly
    • Being aware of your personal situation
    • Keeping your data secure
    • A word about respect

Measuring HMRC’s Performance against the Charter

CRCA 2005 also requires HMRC to make an annual report reviewing the extent to which HMRC has demonstrated the standards of behaviour and values included in the Charter. As part of the consultation HMRC is therefore seeking input on how its performance can be monitored and measured against the new version of the Charter.

ICAS would like your input

ICAS will be submitting a response to the consultation. We would like to hear views about any or all of the questions in the consultation. We would be particularly interested in comments on the following issues:

  • Does the proposed new Charter adequately recognise the role of agents acting on behalf of taxpayers? It refers to HMRC ‘working with anyone you’ve asked to act for you’ but is that sufficient?
  • Should the new Charter address the costs of tax compliance for taxpayers? There was a specific commitment (in 1.2 of the previous version) to keep any costs to taxpayers to a minimum but this is not included in the proposed new Charter.
  • How should HMRC’s performance against the Charter be measured?
  • In a separate exercise HMRC is reviewing whether it could publish more statistical data about its work to enhance transparency. Is there any data which would be useful in helping to measure HMRC’s performance against the Charter?

Please send us your feedback and comments by emailing tax@icas.com or  login to the CA Connect forum, an area exclusive to members. Here you can share your thoughts on the proposed new Charter and engage in discussion about it with fellow members.

ICAS evidence to HMRC’s evaluation of powers and safeguards

By Susan Cattell, Head of Tax Technical Policy

20 March 2020

Appointment by digital handshake: what will your clients make of HMRC’s digital authorisation of agents?

By Philip McNeill, Head of Taxation (Tax Practice and Owner Managed Business Taxes)

26 March 2020

2022-11-mitigo 2022-11-mitigo
ICAS logo

Footer links

  • Contact us
  • Terms and conditions
  • Modern slavery statement
  • Privacy notice
  • CA magazine

Connect with ICAS

  • Facebook (opens new window) Facebook Icon
  • Twitter (opens new window) Twitter Icon
  • LinkedIn (opens new window) LinkedIn Icon
  • Instagram (opens new window) Instagram Icon

ICAS is a member of the following bodies

  • Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies (opens new window) Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies logo
  • Chartered Accountants Worldwide (opens new window) Chartered Accountants Worldwide logo
  • Global Accounting Alliance (opens new window) Global Accounting Alliance
  • International Federation of Accountants (opens new window) IFAC
  • Access Accountancy (opens new window) Access Acountancy

Charities

  • ICAS Foundation (opens new window) ICAS Foundation
  • SCABA (opens new window) scaba

Accreditations

  • ISO 9001 - RGB (opens new window)
© ICAS 2022

The mark and designation “CA” is a registered trade mark of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS), and is available for use in the UK and EU only to members of ICAS. If you are not a member of ICAS, you should not use the “CA” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to accountancy, tax or insolvency services. The mark and designation “Chartered Accountant” is a registered trade mark of ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales and Chartered Accountants Ireland. If you are not a member of one of these organisations, you should not use the “Chartered Accountant” mark and designation in the UK or EU in relation to these services. Further restrictions on the use of these marks also apply where you are a member.

ICAS logo

Our cookie policy

ICAS.com uses cookies which are essential for our website to work. We would also like to use analytical cookies to help us improve our website and your user experience. Any data collected is anonymised. Please have a look at the further information in our cookie policy and confirm if you are happy for us to use analytical cookies: