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Revision as of 14:18, 28 November 2004 by Dpaajones (talk | contribs) (updated)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)In the UK, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is a new department of the British Government to be created by the merger of the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise, as announced by Gordon Brown in the Budget on 17 March, 2004. The name for the new department and its first executive chairman, David Varney, were announced on 9 May, 2004. Varney will join the nascent department in September 2004, but the merger is not expected to come into effect until 1 April, 2005.
The planned new department was announced formally in the Queen's Speech of 2004 and a bill has now been put before the House of Commons, the "Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Bill". The bill also will create a Revenue and Customs Prosecution Office.
Not only will HMRC be responsible for the collection of direct taxes (such as income tax and corporation tax) and indirect taxes (such as value added tax) and some import controls, but also for national insurance contributions, and for the distribution of child benefit and some other forms of support.
As part of the Spending Review on 12 July, 2004, Gordon Brown estimated that 12,500 jobs will be lost as result of the merger (the estimate at the time of the Budget was 10,500).
HMRC is expected to concentrate on reducing the estiamted £30 billion "tax gap"—the gap between the tax that is actually paid and the tax that would be due if all tax avoidance and tax evasion were eliminated. HMRC will aim to cut underpayment of direct tax and national insurance contributions by at least £3 billion a year from the 2007/8 financial year.
The merger was described by the Financial Times on 9 July, 2004, as "mating the C&E terrier with the IR retriever".