CIOT

CIOT: Welcome for HMRC voluntary sector funding announcement

CIOT: Welcome for HMRC voluntary sector funding announcement

The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) has welcomed HMRC’s announcement today of £2 million a year of grants to be given over the next four years to voluntary sector bodies, so that they may provide support and advice to HMRC customers who need most help in complying with their tax obligations and claiming their correct entitlements.
LITRG has been successful in securing grants to create innovative resources for two groups who find particular difficulty in engaging with HMRC and the systems for which HMRC is responsible. These are:

older, disabled or otherwise vulnerable people who employ carers and therefore find themselves having to operate payroll systems and undertake the other regulatory burdens associated with being an employer; and migrants to the UK for whom there is as yet no comprehensive, and comprehensible, source of information on the tax and tax credits systems which they will encounter on arrival here.

John Andrews, Chairman of LITRG, commented:

“The Government should be applauded for its willingness to resource the voluntary sector to supply the education and support which HMRC are no longer able to provide fully due to budgetary constraints. This is a prudent and productive use of taxpayers’ funds which will in time produce a better informed population, better able to deal with the authorities and handle their own affairs, at a cost which represents good value for money.”

Notes to editors

1. HMRC’s announcement can be viewed at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vcs/funding1112.htm

2. The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group (LITRG) is an initiative of the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) to give a voice to the unrepresented. Since 1998 LITRG has been working to improve the policy and processes of the tax, tax credits and associated welfare systems for the benefit of those on low incomes.

3. The CIOT is a charity and the leading professional body in the United Kingdom concerned solely with taxation. The CIOT’s primary purpose is to promote education and study of the administration and practice of taxation. One of the key aims is to achieve a better, more efficient, tax system for all affected by it – taxpayers, advisers and the authorities.

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George Crozier
External Relations Manager

D: +44 (0)20 7340 0569
M: +44 (0)7740 477374

The Chartered Institute of Taxation
www.tax.org.uk
Low Incomes Tax Reform Group
www.litrg.org.uk
The Association of Taxation Technicians
www.att.org.uk

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