Research into barriers and incentives for businesses filing returns online

Report

This short paper, to accompany the forthcoming VFM study on the filing of VAT and Company tax returns, looks at the barriers to businesses filing complete and accurate VAT and Company Tax returns on time and the range of incentives HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) might use to encourage better compliance. First, it identifies potential barriers to efiling of taxes; barriers to e-government, those that might be specific to tax, those that might be specific to business. Second, it identifies those barriers that might be specific or particularly pertinent to the UK tax agency, putting the UK case in comparative perspective. Third, it identifies a range of possible ways to use incentives to overcome these barriers to maximizing the benefits of electronic taxation. In light of the recommendations of the Carter review and the commitment of HMRC to mandate all businesses to file electronically in a phased programme of mandation for businesses up to 2012, it looks across the world for examples of best practice, where countries have managed to achieve higher take-up rates than the UK, using both compulsion and other forms of incentivization, and explores whether such evidence can provide any useful lessons for the UK tax agency.

Authors: Margetts, H; Eynon, R; Hicks, T

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: National Audit Office
• Host title: HM Revenue and Customs: Filing VAT and Company Tax returns
• Journal: Article to accompany NAO value for money report Filing VAT and Company Tax returns
• Publication date: 2006-01-01
• Keywords: SBTMR