HMRC Charter
HMRC have issued a new Charter setting out what the public can expect from HMRC and vice versa. This follows earlier drafts and reflects the responses provided by reference thereto. The 2009 Finance Act gave explicit legislative backing to the Charter which is divided into two main headings:
‘Your Rights’ comprises nine headings detailing what the public can expect from HMRC. That is, to:
- Respect you
- Help and support you to get things right
- Treat you as honest
- Treat you even-handedly
- Be professional and act with integrity
- Tackle people who deliberately break the rules and challenge those who bend the rules
- Protect your information and respect your privacy
- Accept that someone else can represent you
- Do all we can to keep the cost of dealing with us as low as possible
‘Your Obligations’ comprises three headings detailing what HMRC expect from the public. That is, to:
- Be honest
- Respect our staff
- Take care to get things right