Is HMRC due a review?

In an article for Accountancy, Bill Dodwell, Head of Tax Policy at Deloitte, has called for a "short external review" of HMRC, as part of rebuilding public confidence in the UK tax authority.

Last month, Paul Aplin wrote on this same subject in Taxation, and called for a "comprehensive, informed, independent, impartial review"

I agree. Such a review, on some scale, would be welcome. It's also worth remembering that this was a commitment in the Labour Party manifesto. Whether it can make it into Tory plans remains to be seen... 

If such a review does come about, it's important to consider a couple of challenges it would face:

1. Who performs the review? It needs to be independent of HMRC, but also independent of those who might have been on the other side of any negotiated settlements. I also needs to be someone seen to be independent. Being independent isn't enough.
2. Who is the target audience? If it's tax professionals and those setting policy, that's relatively straightforward. However, if the aim is to restore the confidence of the ordinary taxpayer, that's harder. The confidence created by a clean bill of health must be weighed up against the reputational damage possibly done by the announcement of a review in the first place.

I can see the headlines already. "HMCR faces review of sweetheart deals"

I can then see the footnote some months later. "Nothing untoward found"

But that assumes the result of the review. As Paul Aplin suggests "Anniversaries are a good time to reflect".

Whether we get a full review with the remit to propose radical change, or a high level review to provide comfort, or no review at all, something may need to be done to repair public mistrust.