According to a recent report, many payroll professionals struggle with HM Revenue and Customs real-time information services (RTI), and some spend years trying to resolve simple issues.
HMRC’s specialist teams are unable to address the growing backlog of questions from employers who cannot verify or correct discrepancies in data between HMRC and their own records.
In the report Systemic Issues in HMRC RTI Data Collection and Customer Experience When Seeking Resolution by the Chartered Institute of Payroll Professionals, seven case studies of problems that payroll professionals experienced are highlighted. Some employers have waited more than two years to resolve an incorrect tax charge.
HMRC implemented RTI reporting, requiring that payroll operations report PAYE data in real-time. The CIPP stated that, while generally achieving its goal of making tax processing accessible, digital, and fair, it did not always achieve this.
HMRC agents are said to have hung up on the phone when they couldn’t help further or were worried about “getting in trouble” if they resolved issues.
Jason Davenport is the chief executive of the CIPP. He said, “We are committed to being critical friends with HMRC, and we look forward to working together to improve transparency, make sure the correct tax has been paid, and close the gap in tax.
The CIPP will support our members in ensuring that this is done not only for them, but also for the entire payroll community.
Mathew Akrigg is the author of the report and a CIPP policy officer. He added that employers and taxpayers both need clarity on how their issues will resolved in a timely and fair manner. This report will hopefully highlight some of the challenges that payroll professionals deal with every day and encourage HMRC to collaborate with us to improve processes.
The CIPP calls for:
- HMRC’s backlog of RTI issues is now more transparent.
- Review of RTI System processes that cause issues and its expansion capacity
- HMRC will allow employers to view the RTI information it holds about the submissions they have sent.
HMRC’s specialist teams are constantly dealing with a growing backlog of queries from employers who cannot verify or correct discrepancies in the data between HMRC and their own records. The CIPP believes that as RTI’s scope expands, this problem will become more common in the payroll process.
HMRC released a statement saying: “HMRC appreciates the efforts of the CIPP, and its members to collect insight from employers and providers of payroll services to produce this RTI report. HMRC said that the majority of data processed by RTI is allocated correctly. However, in the few cases where there are mismatches, HMRC and employers must work together to correct the situation.
“We will continue working with the CIPP to identify improvements to the RTI System, enhance employer education, guidance, and systems, as well as how to improve our customer service offerings when problems arise.”
Steve Wade, the chair of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales employment taxes and NIC Committee, said: This report, with its real life examples, reinforces what ICAEW members consistently say about the RTI system.
“ICAEW is in agreement that HMRC’s RTI system, liabilities and payments database and need a radical revamp. HMRC’s PAYE implementation review report from 2017 recommended this. The ideal time to make changes is before the mandatory payrolling of benefit and the in-year charging for Class 1A, places more strain on the system.
Glenn Collins, UK Head of Technical and Strategic Engagement at the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, said: “Far to much time is wasted on non-productive basic tax administration, and the simple pursuit of information. We hope that additional funding and a focus on improving agent service will lead to a more secure tax environment.
“HMRC must focus on improving customer service, effectiveness and efficiency to give us the modern and efficient tax system that we need. This will improve public and private sector finances, and boost productivity in the UK.
Steve Wilkinson is co-chairman of the Business Application Software Developers Association’s (BASDA) payroll, pensions, and HR specialist interest groups. He said, “We welcome this RTI report and fully support CIPP findings and recommendations.” RTI is essential to the payroll process and must be fit for purpose. The report shows that the government needs to invest significantly more to benefit all.
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