President of the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT), David Bradshaw, has called on the Government not to cut HMRC staffing levels.
Mr Bradshaw’s comments come just as the HMRC dashboard for tax advisors goes live, which revealed delays in VAT group registrations, self-assessment registrations and R40s.
With Making Tax Digital (MTD) and reform to the basis period fast approaching, the ATT is concerned that any staffing costs would impact the rollout.
“The demands on HMRC for support and guidance will only increase over the next couple of years, and it is hard to see how any significant changes to the tax system can happen effectively unless HMRC has appropriate resourcing,” Mr Bradshaw said.
“It is deeply concerning, therefore, to hear talk of potential cuts to staff numbers. Given HMRC’s current performance issues, we should not have cuts made to HMRC staffing until performance is first restored and then maintained at high levels.”
Mr Bradshaw continued to say that more financially secure businesses should be the first to experience the MTD rollout, stating that the MTD for ITSA threshold of £10,000 is too low, so smaller businesses could struggle with the changes.
“Wouldn’t it at least make more sense to require more financially secure businesses to be the guinea pigs for MTD and then extend its ambit once the system was running smoothly?” Bradshaw added.
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