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HMRC Annual Report and Accounts 2019 to 2020 (Print)

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2019 to 2020 Annual Report and Accounts 8065 HMRC AR&A cover and spine_v5_MB.indd 1 02/11/2020 16:41 HM Revenue and Customs Annual Report and Accounts 2019 to 2020 (for the year ended 31 March 2020) Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 and Section 2 of the Exchequer and Audit Departments Act 1921 Annual Report presented to the House of Commons by Command of Her Majesty Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 5 November 2020 HC 891 Section 1 - Overview to Other Work in Focus_v16_MB.indd 3 03/11/2020 11:36 This is part of a series of departmental publications which, along with the Main Supply Estimates 2020 to 2021 and the document Public Expenditure: Statistical Analyses 2020, present the government’s outturn for 2019 to 2020 and planned expenditure for 2020 to 2021. © Crown copyright 2020 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at www.gov.uk/official-documents Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at HMRC Finance, Room C4, South Block, Barrington Road, Worthing BN12 4XH HM Revenue and Customs Head Office: 100 Parliament Street, London SW1A 2BQ ISBN 978-1-5286-2199-1 CCS0320282930 11/20 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by the APS Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Section 1 - Overview to Other Work in Focus_v16_MB.indd 4 03/11/2020 11:36 Contents 06 Overview 70 Our accountability 08 The difference we made in 2019 to 2020 72 Governance statement 10 Foreword by Chief Executive and 98 Principal Accounting Officer’s report Permanent Secretary 110 Tax Assurance Commissioner’s report 12 How we are organised 126 Staff and remuneration report 13 How we’re transforming HMRC and the 152 Public, stakeholder and Parliamentary tax administration system accountability 18 Our performance 174 Our Accounts Strategic objectives 176 The Trust Statement audit report of the 20 Objective 1: Collecting revenues due and Comptroller and Auditor General to the bearing down on avoidance and evasion House of Commons 40 Objective 2: Transforming tax and payments 179 The Resource Accounts: Certificate and Report for our customers of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the House of Commons 54 Objective 3: Designing and delivering a professional, efficient and engaged organisation 185 Trust Statement Other work in focus 210 Resource Accounts 66 Our work across government 249 Glossary to the financial statements 68 Supporting the UK border and future trade 252 Annex: Statistical tables R1 Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General Section 1 - Overview to Other Work in Focus_v16_MB.indd 5 03/11/2020 11:36 Overview 6 HM Revenue and Customs — Annual Report and Accounts 2019 to 2020 Section 1 - Overview to Other Work in Focus_v16_MB.indd 6 03/11/2020 11:36 Overview Overview About HMRC: our successes, structure, strategy and story, including our performance against our 2015 Spending Review commitments Strategic objectives 08 The difference we made in 2019 to 2020 10 Foreword by Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary 12 How we are organised 13 How we’re transforming HMRC and the tax administration system 7 Section 1 - Overview to Other Work in Focus_v16_MB.indd 7 03/11/2020 11:36 Overview We are the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority Our purpose is to collect the money for the UK’s public services and give fi nancial support to people. Our work touches the lives of almost everyone in the country. Our strategic objectives in 2019 to 2020 Our values Collect revenues due and bear down on avoidance We are professional and evasion We are innovative Transform tax and payments for our customers We show respect We act with integrity Design and deliver a professional, effi cient and engaged organisation The difference we made in 2019 to 2020 We collected tax revenues and gave people fi nancial support £636.7bn total tax revenues (1.4% increase on 2018 to 2019) 95.3% of tax due secured – highest ever fi gure (2018 to 2019; latest available estimate) 12.7m children supported by Child Benefi t 8 HM Revenue and Customs — Annual Report and Accounts 2019 to 2020 Section 1 - Overview to Other Work in Focus_v16_MB.indd 8 03/11/2020 11:36 Overview We helped customers to pay the right tax 850k 12.5m 15,000+ customers helped with post items responded customers supported through Self Assessment queries by phone to from customers face-to-face appointments or webchat in January 2020 with our Extra Support team We took action to make it harder to bend or break the rules £36.9bn generated in additional tax through tackling avoidance, evasion and other non-compliance £3.0bn raised since 2010 from tackling offshore tax evasion 1,958 supervisory interventions to prevent money laundering We made progress in making HMRC a better place to work 2 new regional centres opened this year 5 new commitments for how we value and treat each other in HMRC 13.8% HMRC colleagues from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background, exceeding our target of 12.8% 9 Section 1 - Overview to Other Work in Focus_v16_MB.indd 9 03/11/2020 11:36 Overview Foreword by Chief Executive and Permanent Secretary We want to be a trusted, modern tax and customs department — operating an effective, resilient system that gives the public confi dence in our ability to deliver. It’s a privilege to introduce HMRC’s annual report and accounts for the fi rst time as Chief Executive. I’m proud to have spent my entire 36-year career in HMRC and its predecessor, Inland Revenue. I’ve seen fi rst-hand how skilled and dedicated our people are, and what it takes at all levels to build and sustain a trusted, modern tax and customs administration system. It’s a task that always comes with new challenges, and few are bigger than the one we’ve seen in recent months. Since March, our work has been central to the government’s response to COVID-19. We’ve implemented the Chancellor’s emergency support measures in record time — including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, Self-Employment Income Support Scheme and most recently the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme. And we’re preparing to launch the new Job Support Scheme and Job Retention Bonus. We’ve also made temporary changes in tax policy and the way we operate — with thousands of colleagues delivering vital additional support through helplines and webchat. All this while keeping our usual services running and providing safe working environments for our people. Building resilience and trust It’s a challenge our people are still rising to with pride and determination — but it’s also changed some of the nature of what we do. We’re now a vital part of the UK’s national resilience and crisis response, as well as discharging our role as a tax authority. It’s right that we’re focused on the urgent priorities the government has set for us — not only COVID-19 but also the critical work underway to prepare the border for the end of the UK transition period. It’s also important to acknowledge the diffi cult choices and challenges involved. We need to carefully balance our resources to prioritise supporting businesses and individuals and help keep the economy moving, while continuing to protect vital revenue for the UK’s public services. 10 HM Revenue and Customs — Annual Report and Accounts 2019 to 2020 Section 1 - Overview to Other Work in Focus_v16_MB.indd 10 03/11/2020 11:36 Overview Looking beyond fi nancial year 2019 to 2020, this means we’re likely to see sustained pressure on compliance yield, debt levels and customer service resourcing. Giving confi dence in our ability to deliver We have the competence and capability to navigate these challenges – and this report shows the strong track record we’re building on. The total revenue we collect increased in fi nancial year 2019 to 2020 to £636.7 billion, representing an £8.8 billion increase on fi nancial year 2018 to 2019. We’ve also seen the tax gap reduce to its lowest ever level of 4.7% in 2018 to 2019 (the latest estimate available) — and we’ve modernised the many systems we use to collect tax, such as Making Tax Digital for VAT. We’ve done this at a cost of 0.54 pence to collect every £1 in tax. We are committed to ensuring the correct tax is paid and protecting the public purse — and we remain vigilant to the risk of error, tax avoidance and fraud across all our areas of responsibility. We’re also open about the more diffi cult issues we faced in 2019 to 2020. We experienced more demand than expected in our call centres. Coupled with resourcing challenges carried forward from 2018 to 2019, it meant we didn’t meet all our full-year customer service targets, although our performance moved closer to where we needed it to be during the second half of the year. We’ve also learned lessons from our experience of tackling disguised remuneration tax avoidance schemes. It’s right that we act to ensure that those who use tax avoidance pay the tax they owe — but we understand that compliance investigations and tax debts are stressful and that we should keep in regular communication with customers under enquiry so they understand how we will deal with them and what support is available to them.
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