…is a failure to communicate. (With apologies to Cool Hand Luke)
The fractious comments about the latest problems with HMRC’s online filing software at AccountingWeb illustrate a classic failure to communicate.
Stuart Jones says this of ICAEWs Tax Faculty:
The longer accountants accept the rubbish thrown at them by HMRC the worse it will get it. The professional bodies should be making a stand on their members behalf instead of kowtowing to HMRC & the Government.
Nichola Ross Martin reports Tax Faculty Chairman Paul Aplin as saying:
The ICAEW’s position has always been – and remains – that asking people to file out of hours and at weekends is simply not acceptable. Systems must be made fit for purpose. We have said this again and again both publicly and privately.
I have been in almost constant contact with HMRC’s senior management on this issue over the past few days (including over the weekend). The client list has been accessible since yesterday morning but my colleagues here have found that the system has still been running slowly. HMRC are looking into this. I wish that I could have achieved more but it has not been for want of trying.
I have no direct insight into these conversations but I am aware that the Tax Faculty sees itself as being in an invidious position. On the one hand it is meant to represent the interests of members. On the other hand, it has to work with HMRC on the development of policy.
The two positions are not mutually exclusive and ICAEW could be a lot firmer. Where for example is the press release detailing the problems and the Institute’s response? How is it that Richard Murphy has no difficulty adopting a strident position while being invited to the Treasury? While AccountingWeb may be a magnet for these kinds of complaint, it serves no useful purpose unless ICAEW gets its communications act together. That could be easily remedied. In the meantime, such apparent public inaction makes ICAEWs mantra of Inspiring Business Confidence seem like a hollow claim.
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