, patch = , patchcaption = , logo = HM Revenue & Customs.svg , logocaption = , badge = , badgecaption = , flag = , flagcaption = , image_size = , commonname = , abbreviation = , motto = , formed = , preceding1 =

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...

, preceding2 =

HM Customs and Excise HM Customs and Excise (properly known as Her Majesty's Customs and Excise at the time of its dissolution) was a department of the British Government formed in 1909 by the merger of HM Customs and HM Excise; its primary responsibility was t ...

, dissolved = , superseding = , employees = 63,042 FTE , volunteers = , budget = (2018–2019) , country = United Kingdom , constitution1 =

Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 The Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (c 11) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which combined the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise into a single government department, HM Revenue and Customs. The Act also e ...

, speciality1 = customs , speciality2 = tax , headquarters = 100 Parliament Street, London, SW1A 2BQ , sworntype = , sworn = , unsworntype = , unsworn = , minister1name =

Andrew Griffith Andrew Griffith (born 23 February 1971) is a British politician and former senior media executive who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs since 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been serving as Econ ...

MP , minister1pfo =

Economic Secretary to the Treasury The Economic Secretary to the Treasury is the sixth-most senior ministerial post in His Majesty's Treasury, after the First Lord of the Treasury, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, the Paymaster-General and the ...

and minister responsible for HMRC , chief1name =

Jim Harra James (Jim) Alan Harra, (born July 1962) is a British civil servant who has been First Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive of HM Revenue and Customs since October 2019, in succession to Sir Jonathan Thompson. Background Harra's family ar ...

, chief1position = Chief Executive , chief2name = Angela MacDonald , chief2position = Deputy Chief Executive , parentagency = , child1agency = Valuation Office Agency , anniversary1 = , award1 = , website = , footnotes = HM Revenue and Customs (His Majesty's Revenue and Customs, or HMRC) is a non-ministerial department of the

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responsible for the collection of

taxes A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

, the payment of some forms of state support, the administration of other regulatory regimes including the

national minimum wage The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 creates a minimum wage across the United Kingdom.. E McGaughey, ''A Casebook on Labour Law'' (Hart 2019) ch 6(1) From 1 April 2022 this was £9.50 for people age 23 and over, £9.18 for 21- to 22-year-olds, £6 ...

and the issuance of national insurance numbers. HMRC was formed by the merger of the

and

, which took effect on 18 April 2005. The department's logo is the

St Edward's Crown St Edward's Crown is the centrepiece of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. Named after Saint Edward the Confessor, versions of it have traditionally been used to crown English and British monarchs at their coronations since the 13th cen ...

enclosed within a circle. Prior to the Queen's death on 8 September 2022, the department was known as ''Her'' Majesty's Revenue and Customs and has since been amended to reflect the change of monarch.

Departmental responsibilities

The department is responsible for the administration and collection of

direct tax Although the actual definitions vary between jurisdictions, in general, a direct tax or income tax is a tax imposed upon a person or property as distinct from a tax imposed upon a transaction, which is described as an indirect tax. There is a di ...

es including

Income Tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

Corporation Tax A corporate tax, also called corporation tax or company tax, is a direct tax imposed on the income or capital of corporations or analogous legal entities. Many countries impose such taxes at the national level, and a similar tax may be imposed a ...

Capital Gains Tax A capital gains tax (CGT) is the tax on profits realized on the sale of a non-inventory asset. The most common capital gains are realized from the sale of stocks, bonds, precious metals, real estate, and property. Not all countries impose a c ...

(CGT) and Inheritance Tax (IHT), indirect taxes including Value Added Tax (VAT),

excise duties file:Lincoln Beer Stamp 1871.JPG, upright=1.2, 1871 U.S. Revenue stamp for 1/6 barrel of beer. Brewers would receive the stamp sheets, cut them into individual stamps, cancel them, and paste them over the Bunghole, bung of the beer barrel so when ...

and Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT), and environmental taxes such as

Air Passenger Duty Air Passenger Duty (APD) is an excise duty which is charged on the carriage of passengers flying from a United Kingdom or Isle of Man airport on an aircraft that has an authorised take-off weight of more than 5.7 tonnes or more than twenty se ...

and the

Climate Change Levy The Climate Change Levy (CCL) is a tax on energy delivered to non-domestic users in the United Kingdom. Scope and purpose Introduced on 1 April 2001 under the Finance Act 2000, it was forecast to cut annual emissions by 2.5 million tonnes ...

. Other aspects of the department's responsibilities include

National Insurance National Insurance (NI) is a fundamental component of the welfare state in the United Kingdom. It acts as a form of social security, since payment of NI contributions establishes entitlement to certain state benefits for workers and their fami ...

Contributions (NIC), the distribution of

Child Benefit Child benefit or children's allowance is a social security payment which is distributed to the parents or guardians of children, teenagers and in some cases, young adult (psychology), young adults. A number of countries operate different versions o ...

and some other forms of state support including the Child Trust Fund, payments of

Tax Credits A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...

, enforcement of the National Minimum Wage, administering anti- money laundering registrations for Money Service Businesses and collection and publication of the trade-in-goods statistics. Responsibility for the protection of the UK's borders passed to the

UK Border Agency The UK Border Agency (UKBA) was the border control agency of the Government of the United Kingdom and part of the Home Office that was superseded by UK Visas and Immigration, Border Force and Immigration Enforcement in April 2013. It was f ...

within the Home Office on 1 April 2008 and then to

UK Border Force Border Force (BF) is a law-enforcement command within the Home Office, responsible for frontline border control operations at air, sea and rail ports in the United Kingdom. The force was part of the now defunct UK Border Agency from its estab ...

and the

National Crime Agency The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and in ...

in 2013.

Powers of officers

HMRC is a law enforcement agency which has a strong cadre of criminal investigators responsible for investigating Serious Organised Fiscal Crime. This includes all of the previous HMCE criminal work (other than drug trafficking but used to include this up until 2008) such as tobacco, alcohol, and oils smuggling. They have aligned their previous Customs and Excise powers to tackle previous Inland Revenue criminal offences. They are responsible for seizing (or preventing the loss of) billions of stolen pounds of HMG's revenue. Their skills and resources include the full range of intrusive and covert surveillance and they are a senior partner in the Organised Crime Partnership Board. HMRC criminal investigation officers have wide-ranging powers of arrest, entry, search and detention. HMRC have the power to apply for orders requiring information to be produced; apply for and execute search warrants; make arrests; search suspects and premises following arrest; and recover criminal assets through the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. The main power, unde
section 138
of the Customs and Excise Management Act 1979 (as amended b
section 114
of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984) is to arrest anyone who has committed, or whom the officer has reasonable grounds to suspect has committed, any offence under the Customs and Excise Acts as well as related fraud offences. On 30 June 2006, under the authority of the new

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

home secretary The secretary of state for the Home Department, otherwise known as the home secretary, is a senior minister of the Crown in the Government of the United Kingdom. The home secretary leads the Home Office, and is responsible for all national s ...

, John Reid, extensive new powers were given to HMRC. Under chairman Sir David Varney, a new Criminal Taxes Unit of senior tax investigators was created to target suspected fraudsters and criminal gangs. To disrupt and clamp down on criminal activity. This HMRC/CTU would pursue suspects in the same way the US Internal Revenue Service caught out Al Capone on

tax evasion Tax evasion is an illegal attempt to defeat the imposition of taxes by individuals, corporations, trusts, and others. Tax evasion often entails the deliberate misrepresentation of the taxpayer's affairs to the tax authorities to reduce the tax ...

. These new powers included the ability to impose penalties without needing to prove the guilt of suspected criminals; extra powers to use sophisticated surveillance techniques, and for the first time, to have the same ability as customs officers to monitor suspects and arrest them. On 19 July 2006, the executive chairman of HMRC, Sir David Varney resigned. HMRC is also listed under parts of the British government which contribute to intelligence collection, analysis and assessment. Their prosecution cases may be coordinated with the

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

or the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal advi ...

History

The merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs & Excise was announced by then chancellor of the Exchequer

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Tony B ...

in the budget on 17 March 2004. The name for the new department and its first executive chairman, David Varney, were announced on 9 May 2004. Varney joined the nascent department in September 2004, and staff started moving from Somerset House and New Kings Beam House into HMRC's new headquarters building at Government Offices Great George Street, 100 Parliament Street in Whitehall on 21 November 2004. The planned new department was announced formally in the Queen's Speech of 2004 and a Bill (proposed law), bill, the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Bill, was introduced into the British House of Commons, House of Commons on 24 September 2004, and received royal assent as the

on 7 April 2005. The Act also creates a Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO) responsible for the prosecution of all Revenue and Customs cases. Government Offices Great George Street

The old Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise departments had very different historical bases, internal cultures and legal powers. The merger was described by the ''Financial Times'' on 9 July 2004, as "mating the C&E terrier with the IR retriever". For an interim period officers of HMRC are empowered to use existing Inland Revenue powers in relation to matters within the remit of the old Inland Revenue (such as income tax, stamp duty and tax credits) and existing Customs powers in relation to matters within the remit of the old Customs & Excise (such as value added tax and

). However, a major review of the powers required by HMRC was announced at the time of the 2004 pre-budget report on 9 December 2004, covering the suitability of existing powers, new powers that might be required, and consolidating the existing compliance regimes for surcharges, interest, penalties and appeal, which may lead to a single, consolidated enforcement regime for all UK taxes, and a consultation document was published after the 2005 budget on 24 March 2005. Legislation to introduce new information and inspection powers was included in the Finance Act 2008 (Schedule 36). The new consolidated penalty regime was introduced via the Finance Act 2007 (Schedule 24). As part of the spending review on 12 July 2004, Gordon Brown estimated that 12,500 jobs would be lost as result of the merger by March 2008, around 14% of the combined headcount of Customs (then around 23,000) and Inland Revenue (then around 68,000). In addition, 2,500 staff would be redeployed to "front-line" activities. Estimates suggested this may save around £300 million in staff costs, out of a total annual budget of £4 billion. The total number of job losses included policy functions within the former Inland Revenue and Customs which moved into the HM Treasury, Treasury, so that the Treasury became responsible for "strategy and tax policy development" and HMRC took responsibility for "policy maintenance". In addition, certain investigatory functions moved to the new Serious Organised Crime Agency, as well as prosecutions moving to the new Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office. A further programme of job cuts and office closures was announced on 16 November 2006. Whilst some of the offices closed were in bigger cities where other offices already exist, many were in local, rural areas, where there is no other HMRC presence. Initial proposals indicated that up to 200 offices would close and a further 12,500 jobs lost from 2008 to 2011. In May 2009, job satisfaction, staff morale in HMRC was the lowest of 11 government departments surveyed. In 2013, HMRC began to introduce an update to the PAYE system, which meant it would receive information on tax and employee earnings from employers each month, rather than at the end of a tax year. A trial of the new system began in April 2012, and all employers switched by October 2013. In 2012, Revenue Scotland was formed and on 1 April 2015 it took HMRC responsibility to collect devolved taxes in Scotland. In 2015 Welsh Revenue Authority was formed and on 1 April 2018 it took HMRC responsibility to collect devolved taxes in Wales. On 12 November 2015, HMRC proposed to replace local offices with 13 regional centres by 2027.

Governance structure

The board is composed of members of the executive committee and non-executive directors. Its main role is to develop and approve HMRC’s overall strategy, approve final business plans and advise the chief executive on key appointments. It also performs an assurance role and advises on best practice. The HM Treasury, Treasury minister responsible for HMRC is the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, economic secretary to the Treasury, Richard Fuller MP

Chairman

The chairman of HMRC was an executive role until 2008. Mike Clasper served as a non-executive chairman. From August 2012, the post was abolished with a 'lead non-executive director' chairing board meetings instead. * Sir David Varney April 2005– August 2006 * Paul Gray (civil servant), Paul Gray (acting) September 2006 – February 2007 and (confirmed) February 2007 – November 2007 * Dave Hartnett, Dave Hartnett CB (acting) 2007– 31 July 2008 * Mike Clasper CBE 1 August 2008 – 1 August 2012

Chief Executive

The chief executive is also the first permanent secretary for HMRC and the accounting officer. * Dame Lesley Strathie 2008 – 2011 * Dame Lin Homer 2012 – 2016 * Jon Thompson (civil servant), Sir Jon Thompson 2016 – 2019 *

2019–present Executive chair and permanent secretary * Edward Troup, Sir Edward Troup April 2016 – January 2018

Non-executive board members

Non-executive board members as of November 2019 are: * Mervyn Walker (lead non-executive director) *Michael Hearty *Simon Ricketts *Alice Maynard *Juliette Scott *Paul Morton *Patricia Gallan

Personnel

* Permanent secretary * Director General#United Kingdom, Director general * Director * Deputy director * Grade 6 * Grade 7 * Senior officer * Higher officer * Officer * Assistant officer * Administrative assistant Source: See Civil Service (United Kingdom)#Grading schemes, civil service grading schemes for details.

Performance

HMRC collected £660 billion for the HM Treasury, Treasury in 2018/19. It estimated that total theoretical tax liabilities in that year were £629 billion, but £31 billion was not collected due to the "Tax noncompliance, tax gap", made up of money lost to

, tax avoidance, error and unpaid tax debts. This equates to a collection rate of 95.3% (up from 92.7% in 2005-6). At the end of March 2009, HMRC was managing 20 million 'open' cases (where the department’s systems identify discrepancies in taxpayer records or are unable to match a return to a record) which could affect around 4.5 million individuals who may have overpaid in total some £1.6 billion of tax and a further 1.5 million individuals who may have underpaid in total some £400 million of tax. In 2007–08 HMRC overpaid tax credits to the value of £1 billion; at the end of March 2009, HMRC had £4.4 billion of overpayments to be recovered.

Controversies

Child benefit records misplacement

On 20 November 2007, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling, announced that two CD-R, discs that held the personal details of all families in the United Kingdom claiming child benefit had gone missing. This is thought to affect approximately 25 million individuals and 7.5 million families in the UK. The missing discs include personal details such as name, date of birth,

number, and bank details. The then chancellor stated that there was no indication that the details had fallen into criminal hands; however, he urged people to monitor their bank accounts.

IT problems

Electronic Data Systems, EDS ran the Inland Revenue's tax and National Insurance system from 1994 to 2004. In 2003, the launch of a new tax credit system led to over-payments of £2 billion to over two million people. EDS later paid £71.25 million in compensation for the disaster. In 2004, the contract was awarded to Capgemini. This contract, also with Fujitsu and BT Group, BT, was one of the biggest ever IT outsourcing contracts, at a value of £2.6 billion. In February 2010, HMRC encountered problems following the implementation of their taxes modernisation program called Modernising Pay-as-you-Earn Processes for Customers (MPPC). The IT system was launched in June 2009 and its first real test came in a period known as annual coding. Annual coding issues certain codes to tax payers on a yearly basis. The annual coding process sent out incorrect tax coding notices to some taxpayers and their employers meaning that they would pay too much tax the following year.

Underpayments to ethnic minority claimants

In August 2010, seven HMRC staff were sacked for deliberately underpaying benefits to ethnic-minority claimants. Dave Hartnett, permanent secretary for tax at HMRC, said the department operates a zero-tolerance policy on racial discrimination.

Goldman Sachs deal and surveillance of Osita Mba

The whistleblower Osita Mba revealed to ''The Guardian'' that HMRC entered a deal with Goldman Sachs which allowed Goldman Sachs to escape paying £10 million interest on unpaid tax. Following this HMRC used powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) "to examine the belongings, emails, internet search records and phone calls of their own solicitor, Osita Mba, and the phone records of his then wife" to find if he had spoken to the investigations editor of ''The Guardian'', David Leigh (journalist), David Leigh. Member of Parliament, MPs in the House of Commons public accounts committee praised Osita Mba and called for scrutiny into HMRC's use of RIPA powers in a report. The report said: "We are deeply disappointed by HMRC's handling of whistleblowers. We consider that HMRC's use of powers reserved for tackling serious criminals against Mr Osita Mba was indefensible. HMRC told us that it had changed how it deals with whistleblowers and that it now provides information to its audit and risk committee who can use this to challenge how HMRC handles whistleblowers."

Call waiting times

In September 2015, a report from Citizens Advice highlighted frustration amongst callers to HMRC over long holding times. The report claimed that "thousands" of callers were waiting on average 47 minutes to have their call answered, often at considerable expense to the caller. HMRC alleged that the "unscientific and out-of-date survey of tweets" did "not represent the real picture" but said that 3000 extra staff had been taken on to respond to calls. A June 2015 report from the National Audit Office (United Kingdom), National Audit Office indicated that the total number of calls answered by HMRC fell from 79% in 2013–14, to 72.5% in 2014–15, however a subsequent report in May 2016 suggested that performance improved following the recruitment drive.

Revenue and Customs Digital Technology Services

Revenue and Customs Digital Technology Services (RCDTS) is a subsidiary of HMRC established in 2015 to provide technical and digital services. The company works exclusively for HMRC and its employees are not civil servants. On 17 January 2022, HMRC announced its intention to wind up the company.Public and Commercial Services Union, https://www.pcs.org.uk/news-events/news/hmrc-announces-rcdts-close HMRC announces RCDTS to close], published 17 January 2022, accessed 31 January 2022

References

External links

*
Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005Treasury Press Release
(25 November 2004)
HMRC criticised for using terror laws against tax whistleblower
The Guardian, 2014
Government must revisit the 2019 Loan Charge to avoid bankrupting thousands of innocent contractors
Politics Home, 2018
Mental health problems can be 'exacerbated' by HMRC demands, experts say
The Telegraph, 2018
MP targets 'immoral' HMRC over 'retrospective' taxation of contractors
The Telegraph, 2018
Please only be suicidal during office hours, say HMRC, to workers facing bankruptcy
Business Matters, 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hm Revenue And Customs HM Revenue and Customs, Customs services Government agencies established in 2005 National law enforcement agencies of the United Kingdom Non-ministerial departments of the Government of the United Kingdom Taxation in the United Kingdom 2005 establishments in the United Kingdom Revenue services