Michael McCann
Main Page: Michael McCann (Labour - East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow)Department Debates - View all Michael McCann's debates with the HM Treasury
(11 years, 9 months ago)
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Mr Michael McCann (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (Lab)
T7. My weekend surgeries were dominated by constituents facing backdated payment demands from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, despite the fact that they had discharged their responsibilities and had been assured that their tax affairs were in order. Does the Minister think it is right to put people through financial stress and misery because of HMRC mistakes and staff cuts?
Mr Gauke
There was an issue regarding end-of-year reconciliation, which is an errant part of the pay-as-you-earn system. When we came into office, 17 million cases needed to be dealt with. I think that backlog is about to be cleared—we have made great progress. We are reforming the PAYE system so that tax will be collected at the right rate at the right time, and much more accurately than in the past.