HMRC have issued a document summarising what they see as key areas of their performance in 2011–12. The work was carried out by HMRC's Performance Committee who conducted an end-of-year review of its performance in 2011–12 looking at a range of finance, operational and customer service measures. The report covered everything from revenue collected and error and fraud prevented, to telephone calls answered and items of post on hand.

The intention is that this enables HMRC to track their performance against forecasts and to identify, and take action, on areas of concern.

In the area of revenue collection HMRC state that in 2011–12 early indications are that they have collected additional revenue of around £20 billion over and above the 2010–11 figure. This includes additional revenues from compliance activities of £16.6 billion, which is £1.6 billion more than the £15 billion target set for the year. Tax credit error and fraud is also stated as being ahead of target.

HMRC also state that their telephone contact centres achieved 74.4% of calls answered in 2011–12, against a target of 58%. In their opinion, this represents a significant improvement, but HMRC are clear that they still have a lot more progress to make.

The percentage of PAYE and Self-Assessment post in hand cleared within 15 days is also cited as seeing an improvement rising from 36.8% in 2010–11 to 63.7% per cent in 2011–12. This however falls somewhat short of the 80% target for the year. Against the target of clearing 95% of post within 40 days, a total of 95.5% of PAYE and Self-Assessment post is said to have been cleared.

Chartered Accountants Ireland would like to take this opportunity to remind our members that if they are not experiencing the same level of service HMRC believe is being delivered, we would be happy to take this up with HMRC on your behalf. All feedback, good or bad, can be emailed to leontia.doran@charteredaccountants.ie at any time. Alternatively you can report this directly to HMRC using the Agent Account Manager Service details of which are available at http://www.charteredaccountants.ie/General/News-and-Events/News1/2012/April-/Are-you-using-HMRCs-Agent-Account-Manager-Service/.

HMRC's 2011–12 performance summary is available at http://www.hmrc-corporatecommunications.co.uk/assets/c/8/0/a/bca845cf6c9e9cc8dd1b20775a7b4fa3bf96c241b754216509/HMRC%20Issue%20Briefing%20-%20Our%202011-12%20Performance.pdf