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Consultation on a taxpayer’s charter

  • Published: Thursday, 19 June 2008

In the last Budget the Chancellor announced that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will begin work to develop a new taxpayer’s charter. HMRC today published the first formal consultation document on the scope of the new charter.

The challenge is to produce something that effectively caters for the wide range of the departments’ customers and products

The HMRC has withdrawn the old Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise charters with immediate effect. A launch date for the new charter should be announced in Budget 2009. It is expected that it will cover all customers, including taxpayers and people receiving benefits and tax credits.

The HMRC says that it does not see the charter as a long document but is clear that it cannot be simply aspirational. The challenge is to produce something that effectively caters for the wide range of the departments’ customers and products. This is why the department wants to explore with customers, stakeholders and staff what they would find useful in a charter and how they think it could be of most benefit to all concerned.

The charter is not intended to replace existing legal protections for taxpayers within the law - confidentiality, data protection, freedom of information, and the various rights and safeguards contained in the tax statute itself (such as appeals). The new charter will therefore not be set in legislation. The wording of an accessible and useful charter is intended to be simple and a clear for HMRC customers and taxpayers to understand.

This consultation document is the first of two which will be published during the development of the charter. The second is expected to be on the draft charter. In addition to this formal process HMRC is will engage informally with a wide range of interested parties - customers, taxpayers, members of the public, the voluntary sector and business and taxpayers’ representative bodies, to seek their views.

The project team will be organising workshops and focus groups for various groups through the year. The department is also keen to work with other departments, to explore a more joined-up approach, particularly where they share common customers.

HMRC welcomes ideas and thoughts on these issues. The consultation will be open until 11 September.

Further information

You can find the consultation on the HMRC website.

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