Strategic Software Forum

On 21 July 2020, the government published its ten-year tax administration strategy that sets out the approach to HMRC realising its vision to be a trusted, modern tax and customs department. In recognition of the critical role the business software industry plays in the tax system, HMRC has launched the Strategic Software Forum (SSF). The SSF will enable HMRC and the business software industry to effectively exchange information and work in partnership to address opportunities and challenges within the tax system. This collaborative approach will aim to improve the experiences of the millions of customers who use commercially available software, and the businesses that provide tax software.

Membership

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC)

BASDA

Bright Software Group

Freeagent

Intuit

IRIS

Oracle

Sage

TaxCalc

Tax Systems

Thomson Reuters

Wolters Kluwer

Xero

Terms of Reference

Purpose

The Strategic Software Forum (SSF) is an important platform for HMRC and the business and tax software industry to promote information exchange and collaboration.

The SSF brings together colleagues from across HMRC, government, and the business and tax software industry with a view to fostering collaborative working practices, utilising opportunities, and managing difficulties in the tax system more effectively thereby improving the experiences of both customers and industry.

Objectives

The forum’s objectives are to:

support HMRC in meeting its 4 strategic objectives:
- collect the right tax and pay out the right financial support
- make it easy to get tax right and hard to bend or break the rules
- maintain taxpayers’ consent through fair treatment and protect society from harm
- support wider government economic aims through a resilient, agile tax administration system
act as a safe space for HMRC and the software industry to share our respective priorities and constraints.
discuss, consider, adapt to, and harness the benefits of new and emerging processes and technologies
foster an environment of trust, transparency, and collaboration to effectively influence, test and evaluate both current and future tax policies, strategies, processes, and digital transformation
promote the production of high-quality customer-centric, digital tax related products for our mutual customers

Scope

These are within SSF’s scope:

examine aspects of the tax system for business software providers, or elements of HMRC’s software strategy, and producing, in conjunction with HMRC, proposals for improvements
manage the strategic relationship between HMRC and business and tax software providers through best-practice, technical experience, knowledge, and information exchange
engage widely to facilitate and grow opportunities for partnership working with stakeholders across the business software sector, government, and industry within the UK and beyond
consider and represent the perspectives of different stakeholders
surface and refer technical or architectural design issues to the relevant programme or initiative

These are not within its scope:

addressing individual or company specific matters
to maintain a strategic focus, any operational, technical, or architectural issues identified during SSF discussions will be escalated to the relevant program or initiative for resolution

Membership

1.The SSF membership criteria is based on fulfilment of any of these factors, which aim to ensure the SSF is diverse:

the organisation develops software that helps individuals, businesses, and other intermediaries with their tax affairs
the organisation is a representative body for the software industry 
the organisation holds a substantial market share
the developer is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) provider for multi-national organisations
the developer provides specialist expertise (for example FinTech’s/ Banking)
expertise covering the main tax regimes
longstanding working relationship with HMRC

2.Membership will be organisation-based, with individuals representing their respective organisations.

3.The minimum number of SSF members is 5 and the maximum number of members is 20.

4.Membership will be reviewed annually.

5.Membership should be representative of the UK tax software market.

6.A member may resign from the SSF at any time giving appropriate notice. A replacement member can be appointed by the chair following an ‘expression of interest’ process to be administered by the HMRC forum secretariat.

Subgroups

Where appropriate the SSF will establish a small number of subgroups with working parties to delve deeper into areas of interest to the Parent Forum. The SSF may recruit the expertise of non-members to help tackle discrete issues.
While adhering to the broader SSF terms of reference and principles, each sub-group will also have its own detailed terms of reference to provide targeted guidance for their specific activities.

Operations

The SSF will be chaired by HMRC’s Director General for Customer Strategy and Tax Design.
Secretariat duties will be undertaken by HMRC’s Intermediaries Directorate.
To facilitate richer interaction, the SSF will primarily hold quarterly meetings in person. Remote participation via Microsoft Teams will be an option for exceptional cases.
We aim to share the agenda with members 5 working days prior to meetings.
Forum outputs will be recorded publicly on GOV.UK.
The SSF will maintain an issues and actions log capturing progress against resolving risks, and issues identified during meetings.
The SSF will monitor existing HMRC forums and, where considered appropriate, work closely with interested stakeholders who are not members.
To deliver on the SSF’s objectives in a timely manner some issues will require engagement and delivery out of the normal quarterly rhythm of the forum. We will establish sub-groups or working parties that will report to the SSF to ensure good progress is maintained.