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A simpler tax system and improved online services must be among HMRC's priorities over the next 12 months, according to Chancellor George Osborne.
In a letter to the Revenue's new chief executive, Lin Homer, Mr Osborne lays out what he expects from the department in the 2012/13 financial year.
‘I have set a clear ambition to make the tax system more transparent and easier to understand,’ writes the chancellor. ‘It is therefore important that HMRC take further steps… to make to make it as straightforward as possible for individuals and businesses to comply with the system.’
The letter also urges HMRC to enhance their digital offering to ‘to reduce error, improve compliance and increase transparency’.
Addressing tax collection and reducing the tax gap, the Revenue is expected by Mr Osborne to secure £17 billion in additional revenue in 2012/13, of which £4 billion is to come from the reinvestment of £917 million of savings into tackling avoidance, evasion and criminal attack.
And the taxman has been directed to work with the Department for Work and Pensions to ensure the transfer of tax credits to the universal credit is managed effectively and that tax credit debts can be recovered under the new arrangement.
