UK Inland Revenue Finally Ditches Mrs Doyle

by Caroline Maxwell, Tax-News.com, London

18 February 2002

The Inland Revenue's televisual assualt on the senses of UK taxpayers has ended. Briefly.

With the filing date for self-assessment now passed, the tax authority has announced that it has done away with its temporary figurehead, Mrs Doyle, a revelation which will doubtless please the nation's taxpayers. The character, played by Father Ted actress Pauline McLynn, was brought in to replace Hector the cartoon tax inspector last year, as the Revenue felt that he was not portraying the right image.

However, if they were hoping that their most recent advertising campaign would endear them to the British public, they were sadly mistaken. Despite having spent over £5.5 million on the ads, which chided self-assessed taxpayers to 'Go on, go on, go on...' (etc, etc, ad nauseam) and file their returns on time, the campaign was seen as patronising and annoying by many.

Speaking to the Financial Times on Thursday, an unnamed Inland Revenue employee confided that the advertising campaign was not a popular choice inside the tax department either: 'No one in the Revenue liked Hector and I think with Mrs Doyle they thought the same. The feeling was: why can't the Revenue get someone nice to represent it instead of someone irritating?' the source was quoted as saying.

The Inland Revenue has yet to announce its plans for this year's advertising campaign, but if their track record is anything to go by - Be afraid, be very afraid...

Meanwhile, the National Audit Office (NAO) announced last week that the Inland Revenue is unlikely to hit its ambitious target of 50% take-up for online tax filing and payment by 2005. Although the online tax services which are currently available are popular with UK businesses, individual interest has been slower to come - last year only 39,000 people (against a target figure of 315,000) filed self-assessment forms electronically.

The NAO report recommended that the Revenue simplify the forms available, using information which it already holds about taxpayers to make them easier to fill in. However, this would require legislative change, and could be expensive as new software would be required.

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