§ Mr. Cartwrightasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what improvements are being made to the inquiry and information services made available to taxpayers by the Inland Revenue.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonThe Inland Revenue has been reviewing its inquiry and information services. This has led to the publication recently of a redesigned and extended series of explanatory leaflets dealing with various aspects of personal taxation. These leaflets are available free of charge from tax offices and PAYE 265W enquiry offices. I have placed copies in the Library.
There are at present 79 PAYE inquiry offices manned by staff whose main task it is to deal with inquiries from the public, and extension of the network is under consideration.
The Inland Revenue wants to find out more about the public's own views on how good the inquiry offices and explanatory leaflets are at their job. The Central Office of Information is about to commission a survey by independent specialists from outside the Civil Service to find out how effective the services are at meeting the needs of taxpayers and to provide information about the public's views to help guide future developments including the location of PAYE enquiry offices. The survey will also supplement the views on the contents and presentation of tax leaflets which are already being sought from a wide range of representative bodies.