Inland Revenue: Putting people off in the detail

It doesn’t take much to reinforce people's wariness of new online services.

The Site

The Inland Revenue is responsible for running the UK’s personal and business tax system. Like tax authorities in other countries it has been developing online services for tax collection and self-assessment.

The employers’ section of its current website includes several tools to help businesses with their regular payroll calculations. Among them is a Pay Adjustments calculator that works out weekly and monthly “free pay” (the amount of tax-free income allowable) for the “current tax year”. Users type in a tax code, choose monthly or weekly calculations and enter a payment date. However, anyone trying to do their sums for the first month of the current tax year, which began on 6 April, will be stopped in their calculations by a pop-up asking them to “enter a date in the 2003/2004 tax year”.

The Takeaway

Tax authorities around the world are steadily winning people over to the internet and using it to turn round their predatory and unhelpful image. But Inland Revenue shows how that can quickly be undermined if the tools provided don’t deliver the assistance they promise. Especially when starting from a position of low public esteem.

There is little excuse for its Pay Adjustment tool not being adjusted. The date of the change to a new tax year is fixed long in advance and new tax thresholds for the current year were announced in March and can be found on other parts of the site.

Online services, be they for paying your tax or buying a house, are steadily gaining more users. But most people are still wary and uncertain enough that it doesn’t take much to persuade them to stick with what they know. Providers need to work hard on the detail to help people realise the benefits.

First published on 20 April, 2004