HMRC 'softens' wording on Tax Charter

An unprecedented number of responses to HMRC's consultation on the new Taxpayers' Charter has led to some revisions to the original proposals.

Among the initial criticism was the wording of the document which promised to 'pursue relentlessly' those who 'bend the rules'. In its response to the consultation, HMRC said:

The draft Charter was closely aligned to the HMRC Vision, Purpose and Way to ensure that there was a clear line of sight between the two. Some respondents who had worked closely with the department in developing the Charter did not feel this was appropriate. We have maintained that link but softened the language in some areas, for example:

• The phrase 'pursue relentlessly' is part of the HMRC Vision but we accept an external audience might find this language intimidating and so we have changed the term to 'tackle' in the Charter.
• The phrase 'bend or break the rules' is also part of the HMRC Vision but we have separated the ideas in the Charter to make a clearer distinction for an external audience between those who 'deliberately break the rules' and those who 'bend the rules' by engaging in tax avoidance.

Workable

The Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT), who has been involved in the consultation, welcomed the publication of the revised draft Charter. The CIOT has long called for a taxpayers' charter, to act as an aid to the unrepresented in particular and generally to complement the ongoing review of HMRC Powers.

John Whiting, Tax Policy Director of the CIOT, said: "The new draft Charter is very much in line with the CIOT's recommendations and represents a huge improvement over the version published for comment in February. Consultation and a lot of hard work on all sides has got us there.

"This is a workable and useful document that has the potential to help all those who have to deal with the tax system. There may be some points we would still like to change – for example we prefer 'Taxpayers' Charter' as the title – but we accept that there have to be some compromises to make it fit all the many situations HMRC deal with."

HMRC has also acknowledged that many respondents wanted the Charter to include a broader range of principles and says that it has made some additions and strengthened some of the existing statements to include the right to:

• privacy
  
• certainty
  
• to pay no more than the correct amount of tax
  
• to keep the cost of compliance to a minimum
  
• professionalism and
  
• even-handedness.