Corporate report

Overview of HMRC's annual report and accounts 2018 to 2019

Updated 1 August 2019

This is an overview of our performance against our objectives in 2018 to 2019. You can read about our vital purpose, how we work, and how we’ve performed over the last year.

For full details, you can read the main report: HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2018 to 2019.

You can also read supporting documents:

• HMRC’s compliance yield: How HMRC reports future revenue benefit - an update for 2018 to 2019
• Whistleblowing: prescribed person report 2018 to 2019
• statistical tables
• historical data summary

1. We are the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority

We collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support.

We also protect the fairness of the tax system by making it hard for the dishonest minority to cheat. We take tough action against criminals and those who try to avoid or evade their responsibilities.

1.1 Our vital purpose

Tax touches the lives of everyone in the UK. It funds our schools and hospitals, builds roads and infrastructure, makes us safe, protects our environment, supports our economy and helps to give everyone a stake in society.

A healthy tax system makes all of this possible, which is why we take our role - to help everyone get their tax right – so seriously.

We’re focused on playing our part in building that healthy tax system – one that reduces the tax gap, makes it easy for customers to pay their taxes or claim their entitlements, keeps financial and time costs to a minimum and tackles those who try to cheat the system. It must be trusted and seen to be fair, with the right safeguards in place to protect customers.

1.2 Our objectives

To help us deliver our vital purpose, we have 3 strategic objectives that guide everything we do.

Collecting revenues due and bearing down on avoidance and evasion

It’s our responsibility to make sure the tax system functions well so that, ultimately, we bring in no more and no less than the tax due under the law.

Transforming tax and payments for our customers

We want to use what we know about our customers’ needs to make it as easy as possible to deal with us.

Designing and delivering a professional, efficient and engaged organisation

We’re modernising how we work, reducing our costs, operating in more sustainable ways and working hard to make HMRC a great place to work.

1.3 Our people and values

We have a skilled workforce of around 58,700 full-time equivalent employees (including Revenue and Customs Digital Technology Services Ltd) – from customer service advisers and policy experts to fraud investigators and data analysts – and all these people have an important role to play in making it easy for customers to get tax right and hard for the dishonest minority to avoid paying what they owe.

We’re changing the way we work to deliver our objectives in a changing world – developing new skills and using new technology – but all our activity is underpinned by the same core values:

• we are professional
• we are innovative
• we show respect
• we act with integrity

1.4 Our commitment to transparency

We want to continue improving trust between ourselves and the public. Our customers rightly expect us to act with transparency and treat everyone fairly – creating a level playing field and being open about the decisions we take, and why.

This trust and fairness is a crucial part of building a transparent system that works for all our customers, whether they are an individual or business.

We know we have work to do to achieve this. We’re focussed on demonstrating the integrity of our systems, providing support to those who need it, and being open about the way we run HMRC, so that everyone can judge for themselves how fairly we act and how well we’re doing.

2. The difference we made in 2018 to 2019

HMRC Achievements 2018 - 2019

3. How we performed in 2018 to 2019

We have made important progress in our core objectives, while delivering on new and urgent priorities.

It’s been a successful year for us in delivering our vital purpose to raise money for the UK’s public services. We achieved record total revenue figures yet again, we had our best ever year for Self Assessment returns filed online, and we brought in more money than ever before from tackling avoidance, evasion and non-compliance.

We’ve also risen to the new challenge of preparing for the UK to leave the EU. We’re right at the heart of the government’s preparations – including hosting the cross-government Border Delivery Group to co-ordinate UK border plans, carrying out vital work on customs and preparing businesses and individuals for new rules.

This important work has affected our ability to meet some of our broader targets, and we’ve had to scale back some of our plans to improve our digital services, but we’ve shown responsiveness and flexibility in delivering our core functions alongside complex and critical new tasks.

3.1 Collecting revenues due and bearing down on avoidance and evasion

We increased total tax revenues for the UK by 3.6% on last year. There was a small increase in the tax gap in 2017 to 2018 (the latest year for which figures are available) but it remained at a near-record low.

We continued our strategy of reducing non-compliance by minimising customer error at the earliest possible stage, so we can respond more robustly and effectively to deliberate fraud and customers with complex tax affairs.

How we performed against our public commitments

Status	Number
On track or complete	11
Risk to delivery	3
Not on track	1

Read our full commitments in HMRC’s annual report and accounts 2018 to 2019, starting on page 242.

Key performance figures

£627.9 billion Total tax revenues in 2018 to 2019

£34.1 billion Additional tax generated by tackling avoidance, evasion and non-compliance

5.6% The UK’s tax gap in 2017 to 2018 – the difference between tax that should be paid and what is actually paid

648 Criminals and fraudsters successfully convicted

5.7% Proportion of error and fraud within the tax credits system in 2017 to 2018

£3 billion+ Tax protected or generated from tackling organised crime

Read more in HMRC’s annual report and accounts 2018 to 2019, starting on page 22.

3.2 Transforming tax and payments for our customers

We slightly missed some of our customer service targets: including the average speed in answering calls and turning around our post. Recruitment challenges and our need to divert resources towards EU exit work were significant factors in this. We continued to deliver our strategy, moving more people to our digital services, like Personal Tax Accounts and our mobile app, and launching a major new pilot for business – Making Tax Digital for VAT.

How we performed against our public commitments

Status	Number
On track or complete	6
Risk to delivery	3
Not on track	0

Read our full commitments in HMRC’s annual report and accounts 2018 to 2019, starting on page 242.

Key performance figures

80.4% Customers satisfied or very satisfied with our digital services

5:14 minutes Average speed of answering calls

19.7% Callers waiting more than 10 minutes to speak to an advisor

94.1% Online iForms processed within 7 days

76.6% Customer targeted post turned around within 15 days

19 million Number of customers signed up for Personal Tax Accounts since launch

Read more in HMRC’s annual report and accounts 2018 to 2019, starting on page 38.

3.3 Designing and delivering a professional, efficient and engaged organisation

We recruited thousands of new colleagues, and the investment we have made in new technology, skills and more modern workplaces allowed our teams to work in a dynamic, efficient and flexible way to deliver on urgent government priorities, alongside our usual work.

We are continuing work to improve our staff engagement, embed our new values and make HMRC a better place to work.

How we performed against our public commitments

Status	Number
On track or complete	5
Risk to delivery	1
Not on track	1

Read our full commitments in HMRC’s annual report and accounts 2018 to 2019, starting on page 242.

Key performance figures

£576 million Total sustainable cost savings

6,390 Full-time equivalent staff recruited

5,200 Staff promoted

13 Regional centres - final regional centre secured

0.52p How much it costs to collect every pound of tax revenue

49% Our employee engagement score

Read more in HMRC’s annual report and accounts 2018 to 2019, starting on page 48.

4. It costs HMRC half a penny for every £1 we collect

It cost £4 billion to run HMRC in 2018 to 2019 and our work generated £627.9 billion in tax revenues for the UK’s public services. That’s only around half a penny for every £1 of tax revenue we raise.

The largest proportion of our budget pays for our staff, but we are also investing in new technology, modern workplaces and better skills, so we can collect taxes more efficiently, create a better customer experience and provide good value for the UK taxpayer. We are reducing our operating costs year-on-year, making £576 million in annual sustainable cost savings since 2015.

5. Further information

HMRC’s strategy

HMRC’s single departmental plan

Your Charter, and the Your Charter annual reports

Measuring tax gaps

HMRC’s statistics

HMRC’s governance

HMRC corporate reports