Why is it that so many people are due a UK Tax refund?
One of the reasons is that a select committe report has said that it is 'deeply troubled' by HMRC.
HMRC is Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs to give them their full name.
HMRC were severely criticised by this parliamentary report for:-
Poor and Bad Organisation
Lack of Performance
Presiding over a disengaged work force
The report noted that Sir Gus O'Donnell the cabinet secretary had said that "HMRC faces a huge transformation challenge which will take both time and leader ship attention in particular to rebuild staff confidence in HMRC's leadership and inspire staff to be a part of HMRC's future".
Its seems just so amazing that after some 13 years of the current government and the current Prime Minister Gordon Brown was the Chancellor of the exchequer for some 11 years that it is only now that they seemto be getting to grip with what is a very poorly managed organisation.
The committee noted the "relatively new management team" which I am sure we can all understand as it does take time to get ones feet under the table so as to speak.That said however the committee added that they were "deeply troubled by the apparent absence of any detailed plan to ameliorate the situation".
They asked that HMRC bosses to "redouble their efforts to re-engage with their work force".
The report was also critical that HMRC did not have any proper criteria in order to be able to judge its performance.
They were also critical of HMRC for "lack of transparency " in specific areas that had been identified for improvement.
The MPs stated "we urge HMRC to provide more data in the future".On Monday 8th March 2010 HMRC stated "HMRC senior managers are addressing the causes of low morale. One of the reasons for low morale is that they wish to cut costs and presumably staff in their call centres by 30% by the year 2012.
The Department's new business plan does include a key objective to improve staff commitment.
From a practical and personal point of view I have to say that none of this surprises me as they seem to make so many elementary mistakes or it might be that they fail to educate and train their staff properly.
Also, of course, they need to educate those that need information from them who are in many ways their clients. For example both employers who operate PAYE and employees who are taxed on PAYE.
I say this as quite often employees can pay too much tax and can be taxed on an incorrect tax code.The reason why this happens is that the PAYE system works well for many people but it struggles with anything that is slightly out of the ordinary.
A good example of this could be a student who works part way through the year for a few months only. Often they can be taxed on a month one basis which means that the free pay tax allowances are not allowed to be calculated on a cumulative basis which usually means if some one does not work a full tax year they are very probably due a tax refund.
Another common example is that of some one who leaves their job to go abroad part way through a tax year. Again they would very probably be due an income tax refund as they would not have been able to use up their annual tax free allowance.
The same thing can happen in reverse when people return to the UK perhaps from working or travelling abroad.. If they start part way through a tax year and they are taxed on a month 1 basis as is often the case as they would not have a form P45 from a previous employer then again they would very probably be due an Income Tax Reclaim.
The Author writes many articles on reclaiming Income Tax in the UK and for further information one of his web sites is at UK Paye Reclaim
