New UK Tax Body Announces Structure

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

20 June 2005

The UK's newly merged HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC), which replaced the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise on 18 April 2005 has announced its new organisational structure.

The new organisation, says HMRC, will create a modern, effective department to improve customer service, close the tax gaps, produce efficiency savings and strengthen the UK's frontiers.

HMRC Chairman David Varney said: "Our vision is for an organisation that delivers what it promises, with a strong performance culture. We have designed a structure that will enable and encourage staff to work better together, not just
within teams but across different parts of the department and getting this structure right will be essential to our success. We look forward to realising the full benefits of a single, unified department."

Welcoming the report, Paymaster General Dawn Primarolo said: "The next 12 months will be a time of great change and progress for HMRC and I am confident that HMRC will build on the successes of the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. This report demonstrates HMRC's success in protecting our borders, and securing the revenues
used to fund schools, hospitals and improvements to public services and I am sure that the department's new structure will help it continue to deliver a strong performance."

The new department will be organised into four key business areas:

• Operations - 12 areas including criminal investigations, serious civil investigations, detection and intelligence, as well as customer contact, compliance, debt management and processing units;
• Product and process groups - focusing on products e.g. taxes, duties, credits and benefits, and the processes which deliver them;
• Customer units - Large Businesses and Employers, Small & Medium Enterprises and Employers, Individuals and Frontiers; and
• Corporate functions - including a Strategy Unit and an Anti-Avoidance Group, as well as other support services.

HMRC expects to fully implement this organisational model within the next four to six months.

The report also details the department's progress against targets during 2004-05 and its expenditure plans for the coming years. It also provides updated statistics on seizures at the frontier of prohibited and restricted goods. Highlights include:

• £73 billion collected in VAT receipts to keep the department on track to deliver additional revenue required under the VAT Compliance Strategy;
• around £252 billion collected by the Revenue in net tax receipts and national insurance contributions;
• Between 1 April and December 2004, Customs made 16,684 seizures of illegal meat (58,127kg), fish (64,013kg), dairy products (24,602kg) and honey (8,224kg).

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