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We are the UK’s tax, payments and customs authority, and we have a vital purpose: we collect the money that pays for the UK’s public services and help families and individuals with targeted financial support. We do this by being impartial and increasingly effective and efficient in our administration. We help the honest majority to get their tax right and make it hard for the dishonest minority to cheat the system.
We were established by Act of Parliament in 2005 as a new department replacing the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.
We are a non-ministerial Department established by the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act (CRCA) 2005, replacing the Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. CRCA vested responsibility for the administration of the tax system in Commissioners appointed by the Queen. The Commissioners are drawn from the department’s top management.
We report to Parliament through our Treasury minister who oversees our spending.
The Treasury lead on strategic tax policy and policy development. HMRC leads on policy maintenance and implementation. This arrangement for policy making is known as the ‘policy partnership’.
We:
We are responsible for:
We have 5 strategic objectives:
collect the right tax and pay out the right financial support
make it easy to get tax right and hard to bend or break the rules
maintain taxpayers’ consent through fair treatment and protect society from harm
make HMRC a great place to work
support wider government economic aims through a resilient, agile tax administration system
We want to give you a service that is even-handed, accurate and based on mutual trust and respect. We also want to make it as easy as we can for you to get things right.
The HMRC Charter explains what you can expect from us and what we expect from you.
Read about the types of information we routinely publish in our Publication scheme. Find out about our commitment to Welsh language scheme. Our Personal information charter explains how we treat your personal information. Read our policy on Social media use.
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