What Role Does the HM Revenue & Customs Play in the United Kingdom?
Her Majesty’s Revenue Services or better known by the acronym, HMRC, is an authoritative tax collecting body of the United Kingdom government. If you have plans to relocate or work in the United Kingdom, then clarifying what the HRMC is and how to contact them would come in handy for you. To know more about HM Revenue & Customs in the United Kingdom, see below.
What Is the HMRC for?
HMRC is the board responsible for collecting tax, administering state support, being the regulatory body of regimes such as the national minimum wage and national insurance. The HMRC taxes on the money in the form of Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Inheritance Tax, Insurance Premium Tax, Stamp, Land and Petroleum Revenue Taxes and then allocate them to finance for public services and the citizens’ financial support. Established in 2005, the HMRC was created by merging Inland Revenue and Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise by Act of Parliament 2005. The body is a non-ministerial department that administers the tax system in the United Kingdom; the Commissioners of the HMRC are appointed by the Queen herself. HMRC is supervised by the Treasury Minister, and the body is to send reports to the Parliament.
HMRC’s Responsibilities
Aside from delegating taxes, HMRC is also in charge of:
- Ensuring the recovery of Student Loan repayments.
- Distribution of support payments such as Child Benefit.
- Enforcing the National Minimum Wage.
- Value Added Tax (VAT).
- Customs duty and excise duties.
- National Insurance.
- Environmental taxes such as Air Passenger Duty and the Climate Change Levy.
- Overseeing anti-money laundering registrations for Money Service Businesses (MSBs).
And more.
What Are HMRC’s Policies?
HMRC’s main policies centres on these prime objectives and they are:
- To collect tax revenues and minimise tax avoidance and evasion.
- To transform tax and payments for customers.
- To carry out a professional and organised organisation.
For more details on HMRC’s activities and principle, you can read their corporate report here.
Contacting the HMRC
If you face any problems related to the HMRC, you can always head to their official website here and contact them. Once you have opened the page, you can either select a topic at the ‘Topics’ tab or manually input the purpose of contacting the HMRC in the search box. For example, let’s say you want to contact HMRC regarding a VAT payment problem. You can click ‘VAT’ at the ‘Topics’ tab or type out ‘VAT payment’ in the search box. After that, you will be presented with the search results of a few VAT contacts, each specialising in a specific VAT issue. You can then proceed to click the VAT issue you are facing to view the contacting options. From there, you will be able to find numbers, the opening times, helplines, Webchat, and you can also speak to an online advisor.
Pay Your Taxes on Time
If you miss your tax datelines accidentally (or on purpose), you can get penalised and charged interest on your late payments. Always be on top of your taxes and check the official HMRC website from time to time to keep yourself updated with the United Kingdom’s latest tax information!
