“£1 billion a year is being lost to fraud and error, but HMRC has no targets in place to prevent further losses. £6 billion has been overpaid, £2.3 billion of which has either been written off or is unlikely to be recovered”.

“Public confidence in HM Revenue and Customs was severely dented when it lost the personal details of 25 million people. Then its self-assessment filing website fell over and, to cap it all, the celebrity hired to be the taxman’s public face described HMRC’s creation as ‘a great mistake’”.

“On paper, HMRC’s recent misfortunes may read like a ‘Yes, Minister’ script but, in reality, the joke appears to be on us”.

Mr Bacon, MP for South Norfolk, was speaking as the Commons public accounts committee published its report on Tax Credits and PAYE. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) overpaid £6 billion in the first three years of the Tax Credits scheme. By the end of March 2007 it had written off £0.7 billion of this debt and is unlikely to recover a further £1.6 billion. The report finds that there is little evidence that HMRC has the scheme under control. Levels of fraud and error remain the highest in central government, with £1 billion being lost each year. HMRC still has no targets for reducing error and fraud.

In November last year, two discs containing the personal details of 25 million individuals were lost after being sent by HMRC to the National Audit Office. Last Thursday, HMRC’s self-assessment filing website crashed, forcing an extension of the filing deadline. The following day, Adam Hart-Davis, the public face of HMRC since 2002, told the BBC that the creation of HMRC had been ‘a great mistake’.

5 February 2008
 

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