Tax administration simplification survey

27 Feb 2025

For spring 2025, the government has committed to announcing a package of measures to simplify tax administration and improve the customer experience, with a focus on reducing burdens on small businesses.

We would like to capture members’ ideas on administrative (as opposed to substantive tax) changes to help identify where improvements could be made to the operation of the tax system. We have prepared a survey, which provides a template to allow you to outline your ideas.

The questions (and multiple-choice answers) within the survey are replicated below and it should only take around 10 minutes to complete. Your assistance will help enable us to take real life examples of problem areas, with proposed solutions, to government and HMRC.

The questions are designed to allow you to highlight a single issue of complexity and to share your thoughts on how it might be solved and what the benefits of your proposed solution might be. If you wish to highlight more than one issue and suggested solution, please complete the survey once for each individual issue. This will enable us to analyse the results more efficiently and effectively.

Please click here to start.

If you experience any problems accessing or completing the survey, please email [email protected].

The questions within the survey are:

  1. Name and organisation details
  2. Would you be happy for CIOT to contact you about your suggestion?
  3. Please briefly outline the complexity/problem
  4. Please briefly outline your proposed solution
  5. Has this issue been raised with HMRC/HMT before?
    (yes - if so when, and what was the outcome?, no, not sure)
  6. Will your proposal have an impact on tax revenues?
    (yes – it will increase tax revenues, yes – it will decrease tax revenues, no, not sure)
  7. Which taxpayers will benefit from your proposal? e.g. all self-assessment taxpayers, employed individuals who can claim employment expenses etc
  8. Would your proposal necessitate any substantial changes to computer/software systems for taxpayers/agents/HMRC?
    (yes, no, not sure)
  9. Will your proposal have an impact on HMRC’s resourcing?
    (yes – more resources will be needed, yes – fewer resources will be needed, no, not sure)
  10. What degree of administrative or customer experience improvement could your proposal have for those taxpayers in scope?
    (significant, moderate, minimal, not sure)
  11. What degree of administrative or customer experience improvement could your proposal have for agents who represent those taxpayers in scope
    (significant, moderate, minimal, not sure)
  12. Could your suggestion open up opportunities for abuse/non-compliance?
    (yes, no, possibly – but could be mitigated, not sure)
  13. What changes are likely to be needed to implement your proposal? (changes to: legislation, HMRC manuals/guidance, HMRC forms/claim forms, HMRC’s IT systems/digital service, not sure, other)
  14. Please add any other comments you wish to make