I work at HMRC and have done so for a long time. This week has been particularly difficult given recent events. I had someone on the phone trying desperately to negotiate their tax bill down with me. I told them this was not possible but they said: “if Nadhim Zahawi can, then why can’t I?”
Mr Zahawi, who was Chancellor during Boris Johnson’s final months in office, has admitted paying a tax bill last year of £5m, including a penalty for late payment thought to be worth more than £1m, after a dispute over shares in the polling firm he co-founded, YouGov.
The details are not yet confirmed, but Zahawi’s late payment penalty is reported to have been 30 per cent.
The business owner who rang up to negotiate their tax told me it was unfair they had to pay their bill and couldn’t have it reduced when they believed that the Conservative Party chairman did.
Mr Zahawi has said that his mistake was “careless not deliberate” and that he has paid what HMRC assessed was due. However, the controversy over his tax affairs has made our jobs more difficult.
The caller was very cross about it and wanted to appeal but this also was not possible.
This is the first time in the long time I have worked at HMRC that someone has referenced what has happened in the news and in the Government to try and negotiate a deal.
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I had to tell them it is not in my power to reduce a bill and HMRC wouldn’t negotiate with them. They were so annoyed, adding they didn’t have much money so a tax bill this size would have a negative effect on them. Meanwhile, Mr Zahawi, seemingly doesn’t struggle for money.
I would love to be able to empathise with them as I’m also a taxpayer – I understand why they feel like: it is one rule for some and another for others.
Mr Zahawi is in a position of trust – as am I – but I would be dismissed immediately if I did anything like he had. The HMRC would clamp down on me harshly and rightly so.
I feel annoyed about the whole thing and don’t want to be asked about it at work. The staff shouldn’t have to explain anything relating to Mr Zahawi’s finances as we’re meant to be neutral and I have no real clue of what is actually happening.
Instead, this situation just makes a mockery of the people who work in HMRC. It’s giving HMRC a really bad reputation – and we didn’t always have a good one in the first place.
I think, unfortunately, it will only get worse. I can imagine my colleagues will also have received similar calls, putting them in a difficult position. We will likely get many more.
HMRC says it does not want bad publicity – but this is the worst it has had in a long while.
As told to Grace Gausden, Deputy Money Editor
