Most large business ‘customers’ of HMRC continue to be satisfied with the overall service provided by the department, according to a survey conducted late last year and published last week on HMRC’s website.
Satisfaction has remained ‘fairly constant’ since 2008, said the authors of the Large Business Panel Survey for 2010. The survey included questions about HMRC’s ability to identify and focus on high-risk issues but did not address the issue of dispute resolution, which has continued to attract media scrutiny in recent months and occupied MPs at a hearing of the Commons Treasury Committee last week.
Satisfaction was rated as very or fairly good by 89% of Large Business Service (LBS) customers, 78% of Large and Complex (LC) customers that have been allocated a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), and 67% of LC customers that were assigned a Customer Co-ordinator (CC) in summer 2010.
Almost two thirds of LC CC customers gave positive ratings to statements relating to HMRC staff’s handling of queries, but only a third felt they had adequate access to tax specialists (31%) or that HMRC was a ‘joined-up organisation’ (29%).
Competitiveness
Businesses were divided in their views on the capacity of HMRC to impact on the competitiveness of the UK, the authors said. Follow up interviews indicated that ‘tax rates and legislation have a greater impact on the UK as a place to do business than HMRC’s administration of the tax system’.
‘Around 19% of all LBS customers, 12% of LC CRM customers and 4% of LC CC customers considered moving some or all parts of their business for tax reasons in 2010,’ according to the report.
Customers perceived that the administrative burden of tax compliance had increased over the previous 12 months. Most businesses were confident that they knew what HMRC would challenge as tax avoidance, and awareness of specific anti-avoidance initiatives was ‘high’.
The research conducted for HMRC by IFF Research found that ‘in general, HMRC is seen by its customer groups to be seeking a cooperative relationship in its dealings with businesses and to provide fair and consistent treatment, while staff’s handling of queries is generally seen as satisfactory’. There were ‘high ratings’ across all customers in these areas.
Point of contact
IFF conducted telephone interviews with the Head of Tax or Finance Director of 1,770 businesses in autumn 2010.
The authors added: ‘As in previous years, LBS customers tend to be the most positive towards HMRC’s service provisions giving the highest ratings across all service areas. LC CRM customers are slightly less positive, but both groups have similar views and priorities with the role of the CRM being particularly valued.
‘LC CC customers, on the other hand, continue as before to score HMRC less positively than the other groups. Until recently, this group lacked a specific point of contact which might have affected some of the ratings. In the summer of 2010, a Customer Co-ordinator was introduced to provide this service and there is some evidence that this may have had a positive effect on ratings.
‘In terms of areas for improvement, all customer groups continue to feel that HMRC could do more to ensure it operates in a joined-up way, is more transparent in its decision making and improves access to tax specialists which is similar to previous years.’
HMRC reaction
HMRC said that overall, business customers felt that HMRC ‘continues to maintain a high level of service and has made progress in addressing their concerns and issues’.
The department recognised that there were still areas where more can be done, a spokesman told Tax Journal.
‘The findings from this research will continue to be used to improve services to our customers as well as to inform our business planning,’ he added. ‘The research will also enable us to measure our progress in delivering services to our large business customers.’
IFF expects to release later this year the results of a complementary survey of large businesses, focusing on tax policies.
Most large business ‘customers’ of HMRC continue to be satisfied with the overall service provided by the department, according to a survey conducted late last year and published last week on HMRC’s website.
Satisfaction has remained ‘fairly constant’ since 2008, said the authors of the Large Business Panel Survey for 2010. The survey included questions about HMRC’s ability to identify and focus on high-risk issues but did not address the issue of dispute resolution, which has continued to attract media scrutiny in recent months and occupied MPs at a hearing of the Commons Treasury Committee last week.
Satisfaction was rated as very or fairly good by 89% of Large Business Service (LBS) customers, 78% of Large and Complex (LC) customers that have been allocated a Customer Relationship Manager (CRM), and 67% of LC customers that were assigned a Customer Co-ordinator (CC) in summer 2010.
Almost two thirds of LC CC customers gave positive ratings to statements relating to HMRC staff’s handling of queries, but only a third felt they had adequate access to tax specialists (31%) or that HMRC was a ‘joined-up organisation’ (29%).
Competitiveness
Businesses were divided in their views on the capacity of HMRC to impact on the competitiveness of the UK, the authors said. Follow up interviews indicated that ‘tax rates and legislation have a greater impact on the UK as a place to do business than HMRC’s administration of the tax system’.
‘Around 19% of all LBS customers, 12% of LC CRM customers and 4% of LC CC customers considered moving some or all parts of their business for tax reasons in 2010,’ according to the report.
Customers perceived that the administrative burden of tax compliance had increased over the previous 12 months. Most businesses were confident that they knew what HMRC would challenge as tax avoidance, and awareness of specific anti-avoidance initiatives was ‘high’.
The research conducted for HMRC by IFF Research found that ‘in general, HMRC is seen by its customer groups to be seeking a cooperative relationship in its dealings with businesses and to provide fair and consistent treatment, while staff’s handling of queries is generally seen as satisfactory’. There were ‘high ratings’ across all customers in these areas.
Point of contact
IFF conducted telephone interviews with the Head of Tax or Finance Director of 1,770 businesses in autumn 2010.
The authors added: ‘As in previous years, LBS customers tend to be the most positive towards HMRC’s service provisions giving the highest ratings across all service areas. LC CRM customers are slightly less positive, but both groups have similar views and priorities with the role of the CRM being particularly valued.
‘LC CC customers, on the other hand, continue as before to score HMRC less positively than the other groups. Until recently, this group lacked a specific point of contact which might have affected some of the ratings. In the summer of 2010, a Customer Co-ordinator was introduced to provide this service and there is some evidence that this may have had a positive effect on ratings.
‘In terms of areas for improvement, all customer groups continue to feel that HMRC could do more to ensure it operates in a joined-up way, is more transparent in its decision making and improves access to tax specialists which is similar to previous years.’
HMRC reaction
HMRC said that overall, business customers felt that HMRC ‘continues to maintain a high level of service and has made progress in addressing their concerns and issues’.
The department recognised that there were still areas where more can be done, a spokesman told Tax Journal.
‘The findings from this research will continue to be used to improve services to our customers as well as to inform our business planning,’ he added. ‘The research will also enable us to measure our progress in delivering services to our large business customers.’
IFF expects to release later this year the results of a complementary survey of large businesses, focusing on tax policies.
