25% Say HMRC Is Not Acting With Honesty And Integrity

The percentage of businesses and individuals in the UK that believe HMRC acts with honesty and integrity has fallen - according to a Government document published today.

Entitled Your Charter, the report is designed to demonstrate improvements to the way that HMRC deals with its various stakeholders and sets out the relationship it  wants to build with its customers and also what customers can expect from it.

The annual report, which covers April 2013 to March 2014, focuses on a number of areas including answering customer calls and rolling out cheaper 03 telephone numbers, dealing with post from customers and modernising PAYE with Real Time Information.

However, according to a survey which is contained within Appendix C, HMRC’s own research reveals that only 72% of taxpayers consider HMRC to act with honesty and integrity.

This represents a decline from the previous year when the overall figure stood at 75%.

Phil Berwick, Contentious Tax Partner* at national law firm Irwin Mitchell, said:

*Non lawyer