What is HMRC?

HMRC is an abbreviation of Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and it is a department of the government, which is not ministerial but is directly responsible for tax collection, some types of aid for state and administration that comes from state for some regulatory regimes, minimum wage being most notable amongst them. HMRC was created through the merging of “HM Customs and Excise” and “Inland Revenue” on 18th April 2005.

What is HM Revenue and Customs responsible for?

One of the responsibilities of HMRC is the collection of an array of taxes including:

• Direct tax (income and corporation tax)
• Capital tax (inheritance tax, capital gains tax)
• Indirect tax that includes VAT, excise duties as well as stamp land tax
• Environmental taxes.

Apart from tax collection HMRC is responsible for following things:

• All national insurance contributions
• Child benefits distribution as well as other forms of state support for children, like Child Trust Fund
• Payment and processing of tax credits
• Minimum wage
• The empowerment of anti-money laundering registrations
• Collection and publication of statistics concerning trade-in-goods.

How to Get Help

When you look at the list of responsibilities, you realise why there are so many contact numbers for HMRC. It’s inevitable that at some point in your life you’ll have dealings with this department of the government and you will likely have to get in touch for a general enquiry or complaint. The best way to get help with any revenue or customs related enquiry is to call the contact number to speak with a helpful advisor.

Even with the huge amount of contact numbers, HM Revenue and Customs still has to put people on hold every day. So, if you are placed on hold by one of the HMRC operators, understand they are probably dealing with a complex tax related enquiry and will answer your call as soon as they can.

Preventing Financial Crime

HMRC is also the agency that enforces law with numerous criminal investigators that are placed on cases that involve organised financial crime. A good portion of cases from HM Customs and Excise is taken over by HMRC (only drug trafficking crimes are typically given to other agencies). The powers they have taken from Customs and Excise are used to deal with Inland Revenue cases (before that it was not possible because Inland Revenue had no such powers to exercise). They are responsible for preventing the loss and seizing of HMG revenue (this means their job involves billions of pounds that must be sent to the right place and protected from third parties). The extent of HMRC responsibilities is reflected in their senior partnership in Organized Crime Partnership Board. They have powers that allow the use of extensive amount of covert and intrusive surveillance.

HMRC has 3.5 billions of pounds of Total Departmental expenditure limit for the following year. That money is used to help those in need, and a lot of it comes from taxes people pay. The majority of people in the UK pay their taxes, but there are still cases of tax evasion. The government gave the HMRC full power to deal with tax evasion. HMRC plan is to take actions that will prevent tax evasion, and in cases where prevention fails there are effective counter actions. HMRC has been working diligently up until now (just look at over 500 billion pounds in total revenues collected in the past year), and they promise that they will continue working like that.

What Can You Expect From HMRC?

HMRC are dedicated in working diligently and promise to treat everyone even handedly, professionally and with compassion whilst still safeguarding payments of tax from UK citizens. It is important therefore that UK citizens act honestly, respect staff, keep personal records safe and always try to find out what you need to do and keep them up to date with any change of information or anything that they require.

HMRC offer financial support to families and individuals that require specific and targeted financial support.

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source https://www.contacthmrc.com/what-exactly-is-hmrc/