Government invest millions in HMRC's digital services
HMRC have announced that by April 2015 up to two million people will be able to assume control of their tax affairs via their online accounts thanks to a £200 million investment in HMRC's digital services.
Nearly five million small businesses will be able to interact with HMRC digitally and they will be afforded greater control over their tax affairs.
Digital transformation, says HMRC, will free people to spend more time developing their businesses by virtue of reduced paperwork and bureaucracy. It will also assist the department in identifying those who seek to flout the rules and cheat the system.
By 2015-16, digital transformation will have reduced HMRC’s costs by £51 million and up to two million individuals will be able to carry out transactions online, such as:
- self-serving their repayments
- viewing their tax codes and how they are made up
- updating their personal details online
- handling end of year reconciliation online
- reporting additional sources of income, such as interest, rental and dividend income
- receiving targeted online support when approaching retirement and
- receiving correspondence for these services via their online account
In that same period SME's (small and medium-sized enterprises) and their agents will be able to:
- access nearly everything they need through a single personalised homepage
- get direct access to all the online transactions relevant to them
- view a personalised tax calendar with digital alerts
- complete more transactions online (e.g. telling HMRC that they’ve ceased trading)
- get answers to their questions through tailored online tools, thereby reducing post and phone volumes
- get relevant cross-Government information where appropriate and interact with HMRC digitally (in most cases)
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