[Withdrawn] HM Revenue and Customs single departmental plan - December 2017
Updated 1 October 2019
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This publication was withdrawn on 23 May 2018
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Our single departmental plan sets out our objectives and how we will achieve them.
Executive Chair and Permanent Secretary
Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary
We are the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority, and we have a vital purpose: we collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support.
Our vision is to be a world-class organisation – and our work is underpinned by our values:
- we are professional
- we act with integrity
- we show respect
- we are innovative
Our objectives
We will:
- Maximise revenues and bear down on avoidance and evasion
- Transform tax and payments for our customers
- Design and deliver a professional, efficient and engaged organisation
1. Maximise revenues and bear down on avoidance and evasion
Lead minister:
The Rt Hon Mel Stride MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Lead official:
Jon Thompson, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary
1.1 Maximise revenues
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Build on our success in collecting £574.9 billion in total revenues over 2016 to 2017 and the overall downward trend in the tax gap over the past decade |
| Deliver compliance revenues of £28 billion in 2017/18 through our compliance and enforcement activity |
1.2 Bear down on tax avoidance and evasion
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Invest £800 million into additional work to tackle evasion and non-compliance in the tax system, with a further £155m of investment announced at Autumn Budget 2017 for future years up to 2019-20 |
| Raise an additional £5 billion a year by 2019 to 2020 by tackling tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning, evasion and non-compliance, and by addressing imbalances in the tax system |
| Extend our model for the wealthiest individuals to a further 2,000 individuals with net wealth between £10 million and £20 million |
| Strengthen our work around identifying those who seek to operate in the hidden economy |
| Increase our ability to prevent alcohol and tobacco smuggling |
| Strengthen the sanctions and deterrents against tax avoidance |
| Continue to tackle tax avoidance, closing schemes and collecting yield of more than £1.3 billion in 2017-18 through Accelerated Payments |
| Increase the number of criminal investigations that we undertake into serious and complex tax crime, focusing particularly on wealthy individuals and corporates, with the aim of increasing prosecutions in this area to 100 a year by the end of the Parliament |
| Support the government in making it a crime when companies fail to put in place measures to stop tax evasion in their organisation, making sure that penalties are large enough to punish and deter such behaviour |
| Ensure global companies pay their fair share in tax by supporting the government’s leading role in the reform of international tax rules |
| Review the international country by country tax reporting rules and consider the case for making this information publicly available on a multilateral basis |
Our performance
Total tax revenues £574.9 billion April 2016 to March 2017 (£38.1 billion more than last year)
Source: HMRC quarterly performance update
Release schedule: quarterly
Compliance yield raise £28.9 billion April 2016 to March 2017
Source: HMRC quarterly performance update
Release schedule: quarterly
2. Transform tax and payments for our customers
Lead minister:
The Rt Hon Mel Stride MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Lead official:
Jon Thompson, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary
2.1 Transform for our customers
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Invest £1.3 billion to transform HMRC into one of the most digitally advanced administrations in the world, finishing the delivery of our multi-channel digital services so we become a ‘digital-by-default’ organisation |
| Accelerate channel shift and continue to encourage customers to use digital services |
| Continue to roll out and develop digital tax accounts, enabling customers and their authorised agents to see all their tax affairs in one place, and be able to check at any time that their details are complete and correct |
2.2 Support welfare and pension reform
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Continue to work with HM Treasury and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on the transition to Universal Credit, making this as smooth as possible for staff and claimants, in line with the migration plan led by DWP |
| Support the government’s pensions and savings reforms by continuing to design and deliver the new Lifetime ISA and support the delivery of the new ‘Help to Save’ initiative |
| Gradually roll-out Tax-Free Childcare support to eligible households to help with the cost of childcare, enabling more parents to go out to work or work more, to provide greater security for their families |
| Continue to monitor AME risks and work with HM Treasury officials to develop operational and policy ideas to minimise fraud, error and debt |
2.3 Ensure a smooth and orderly EU exit
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Support the government to negotiate a successful exit and future partnership |
| Implement changes so that the tax and customs system – including the Customs Declaration System - will be ready for that outcome |
| Support UK businesses so that they can continue to meet their obligations |
Our performance
Customer satisfaction with digital services 83% Customers either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with digital services in 2016/17 - against 80% target
Source: HMRC quarterly performance update
Release schedule: quarterly
Average speed of answering a customer’s call
| Quarter | Average speed of answer (year to date) |
| 2016/17 Q4 | 03:54 |
| 2016/17 Q3 | 04:05 |
| 2016/17 Q2 | 04:34 |
| 2016/17 Q1 | 05:03 |
Source: HMRC quarterly performance update
Release schedule: quarterly
i-form 7-day turnaround 99% 2016/17
Source: HMRC quarterly performance update
Release schedule: quarterly
Post cleared within 15 working days of receipt 81% 2016/17
Source: HMRC quarterly performance update
Release schedule: quarterly
3. Design and deliver a professional, efficient and engaged organisation
Lead minister:
The Rt Hon Mel Stride MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury
Lead official:
Jon Thompson, Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary
3.1 Engage our people
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Continue to make consistent positive progress towards achieving the Civil Service Employee Engagement Index benchmark (59% in 2016) |
| Increase the percentage of staff each and every year who feel they have the skills required to do their job effectively, working towards the Civil Service benchmark (89% in 2016) |
3.2 Transform our estate
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Continue to transform our estate into modern, adaptable workspaces, creating 13 new Regional Centres over the next five years, serving every nation and region in the UK |
| Ensure these Regional Centres bring staff into more cost-effective buildings, while making it easier for HMRC teams to collaborate and modernise the way we work |
3.3 Deliver sustainable savings
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Secure £380m of sustainable efficiencies, in line with Spending Review 2015 and subsequent fiscal events and continue to work towards £717m target of annual, sustainable efficiencies by 2019/20 |
| Achieve £1.9bn of cumulative sustainable savings over the Spending Review |
3.4 Support cross-government commitments
| How we will achieve this |
|---|
| Continue to support the Greening Government commitments to reduce our impact on the environment, working towards the 19-20 targets |
| Contribute to the Global Goals for Sustainable Development through recruitment of a diverse workforce |
| Further strengthen our ability to police the National Minimum Wage, with new teams to undertake proactive reviews of those employers considered most at risk of non-compliance |
| Ensure developing countries have full access to global automatic tax information exchange systems and continue to build the capacity of tax authorities in developing countries |
Our performance
You can find more detailed information on how HMRC is doing in our quarterly performance updates.
Our finances
Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL) - £4.2 billion
Resource DEL (including depreciation) - £3.9 billion
Capital DEL – £0.2 billion
Annually Managed Expenditure – £42.4 billion
Control totals included in this document are in line with the latest voted by Parliament in the Main Supply Estimates 2017/18
Source: Main Supply Estimates 2017/18