Around one third of staff at HMRC's enforcement and compliance division will be eligible for retirement in the next five years, figures in an internal HMRC presentation seen by The Telegraph indicate.
The exodus of the department's most experienced tax professionals comes as HMRC attempts to meet a Treasury target for increasing the amount of tax it collects.
As the paper notes, this comes in a broader context:
HMRC has cut about 37,000 jobs since 2005, according to the Public and Commercial Services Union, and plans to cut around a further 10,000 jobs by 2015 to reduce costs.
Peter Lockhart, national officer at the PCS, which represents the majority of HMRC workers, said: "HMRC [staff] retirement figures are higher than we thought. HMRC is so grossly understaffed that it is going to struggle to bring in the money the Treasury needs.
The issue of an aging workforce is going to exacerbate the problem and will be further compounded by the government's decision to cut a further 10,000 HMRC posts."
Quite so.
As a result of governemtn policy we're destroying our ability to collect tax to pay for government.
The trouble is, that's not by accident. That appears to be by design.
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Expect tax collection and enforcement to soon be contracted to exterior companies then.
Now, I wonder…..
As Simon Jenkins stated in today’s Guardian , we are becoming more amd more like a third world country. Simon’s comments related to energy production and the likelihood of power cuts in the future. However, it could easily have referred to tax collection. Poor sysytems of tax collection in developing countries undermine their ability to provide health and education programmes for their citizens. Furthermore developing countries also have large informal sectors (self employment) which results in lower tax revenues. The UK’s latest employment statistics reveal an increase in self employment and more part time working and this will inevitably result in reduced tax revenues and the consequences for the welfare state are obvious.
We don’t have a third world tax system. Such a system is characterised by tax officers taking bribes to reduce the tax take. I’m hopeful that is not the case in the UK yet.
What we have is a globalised neocon tax system where our nutty politicians are so scared the mncs will up sticks if they have to pay tax , they water down legislation that would improve compliance and gut the HMRC staff that could do something about it.
Our politicians seem to overlook the fact that these guys want our business but don’t want to contribute fairly to the communities that provide them the environment in which business can be done. Thats for the little people to pay for. Luckily there is no Starbucks in my town so boycotting them is easy.
The burden of compliance will fall even further upon taxpayers and agents. The dishonest evader, and aggressive avoider and planner will have a field day, unless there is a radical redrawing of the legislation, to brick up the many holes.
We cannot blame the present government for this. The staffing age profile issue would have been known when Gordon Brown and Ed Balls set HMRC’s staff reduction targets. It’s reasonable to assume that they intended to contract out HMRC’s work to their private sector mates. ED Milliband’s gaff about the need for more energy sector “competition”, when even David Cameron recognized that competition has failed, suggests that Labour hasn’t moved on.
We can blame the government – they’ve been in office for 2.5 years
Please don’t be silly
They could have changed this in the light of the evidence
From what you said on the appearance of deliberate design to destroy the tax gathering system (for the wealthy), we must conclude that corruption of politicians by the wealthy is the cause – what else could it be? But it also appears a simple extension of previous government policy, to deliberately go slow on taxing the wealthy. We must then conclude (if we are to believe your analysis) that The Conservatives and Labour have been corrupted by the wealthy, and that the LibDems have also been instantly corrupted the second they got into bed with the Conservatives.
What is the for of that corruption though? Is it straightforward cash-bribery, or is it something else?
Essentially you are right. Staff cut backs mean less pressure for those with complex financial affairs and the ability to distance themselves from their wealth – all characteristics of the rich, especially the super-rich. An influential external Greek Chorus – the “un”professional and research bodies – day after day complaining that the tax system is too complex and suggesting tax reduction solutions to what are essentially business management problems.
It is also leading to an increase in not-self-employed self employment.
Many are moving from PAYE to being self-employed in the same company, at the same job and using company equipment and premises.
I need a new Land Rover so I’m thinking of a part-time self-employment job, possibly window cleaner !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t see part-time work as leading to much of a benefits drop…many benefit claimants (possibly the majority) are working. Legally.
Richard. You may want to have a look at what these retired inspectors are doing. Some of these most experienced ex-Inspectors are setting up their own consultancy firms and contacting taxpayers to offer their services on how to deal with HMRC.
Strange.
You call for more taxes to be raised, then point out that the government is incompetent.
If the government is incompetent, why do we want to impoverish taxpayers to expand their powers or capabilites?
Please read the Courageous State and try to advance your debating style beyond pedantry
Oh Richard you really are a lost cause.
“……a Courageous State is populated by politicians who believe in government and in the power of the office they hold. They believe that office exists for the sake of the public good”
Even the most noble and idealistic politician ever seen by this Earth has proved not equal to the task of retaining his nobility once granted power, and you expect to raise 650 of them?
And then thousands of heroic civil servants beneath them?
Even the most naive pot-smoking, beret-wearing left-wing Arts graduate understands that power corrupts.
That you have reached such a ripe age and seen the collapse of the USSR and the rise of the EU, and yet cling to your Statist beliefs, is a testament to your blindness to the abject failures of your philosophy.
Oh, I see
You want us to live in a world where corruption is the norm and ethics do not matter
Please don’t call again