Revenue. Taxation. Internal revenue
Research Topic
Language: English
This is a research topic created to provide authors with a place to attach new problem publications.
Research problems linked to this topic
- What are the best ways to design a customer contact strategy for maximum uptake of digital channels, while still maintaining excellent and accessible services, supporting vulnerable customers and customers who need additional help through an appropriately paced transition?
- What are the implications of effective resource usage for contact centre opening hours and staff training, staff allocation between phone and webchat, and signposting to digital services?
- How does the Scottish tax system compare to other relevant countries, and what lessons can be learned to improve tax outcomes for example on revenue, behaviour, and redistribution.
- What are the implications of using AI models and what are their impacts on different customer groups?
- What future functionality will HMRC require for this?
- What is the digital capability of the HMRC customer base? Does this change over time and, if so, how?
- What is the public perception of tax fraud in respect of; the scale and severity of fraud, the most common customer groups participating in fraud, the likelihood of detection and the consequences of committing fraud (segmented by behaviour, customer group and tax type)?
- What are the impacts of the interactions between the tax system and broader policy systems e.g. social security and labour market?
- How, and to what extent, do different taxes and policy decisions impact business confidence and competitiveness of the economy?
- What are public attitudes to HMRC taking opportunities to collect and use data that could help improve wider policy and service delivery for citizens and businesses rather than only for a specific purpose?
- How does HMRC compare to best practice and what current and future technologies could be utilised to improve customer experience?
- How do marginal and average tax rates impact behaviour change at a devolved and cumulative level e.g. combined with reserved tax policy?
- Is confidentiality important for voluntary compliance?
- What is the relationship between customer experience and revenue outcomes?
- How may the Scottish tax base change in the future, for example, due to Scottish and UK Government policy changes, economic shocks, and longer- structural changes?
- How should government utilise other data sources from third parties, are there any concerns or benefits from government knowing more about its citizens?
- How can HMRC provide better support through our digital services to reassure customers when meeting their tax obligations?
- What are the best ways to design systems and policy to minimise fraud and error in Scotland, while maintaining excellent and accessible services?
- What prevents Self Assessment taxpayers from using HMRC’s Estimator Tool for Self Assessment taxpayers and the Budget Payment Plan? And what would motivate more taxpayers to do so?
- What will future demographic, economic and other changes mean for future level and mix of demand for HMRC customer services through different channels?
- What are most effective tax and fiscal levers to drive behavioural change to support our environmental objectives, in particular relating to net zero?
- What are the most impactful types of behavioural responses over the short and longer term e.g. labour supply, tax planning, and migration?
- How will the needs of customers who need extra help evolve over time as we modernise the way we interact with customers, and how can we use future technology to better support these customers?
- How can the Scottish Government best support taxpayers to understand the tax system and obligations?
- What lessons can we learn from other countries about the balance between local and national taxes?
- What novel/innovative approaches do other tax authorities use to prevention and redress non-compliance in areas such as small business and research & development, and what can be learned from them of relevance to the UK context?
- How common are various administrative burdens and what is their impact on customer experience?
- What proportion would be capable of; self-serving through digital channels, would need support to do so, and would be digitally excluded from using such services?
- How can HMRC use and evaluate how effective technological solutions are for customer contact, such as webchat, asynchronous messaging, apps and digital accounts?
- How do other countries use property taxes and how have successful reforms to these been delivered?
- How can we most effectively use resource (such as, permanent, contingent and outsourced staff) to optimise customer experience of the service provided?
- What economic interventions have the biggest impact on the tax base, and revenues?
- What issues arise from sharing data with external/commercial partners and organisations?
- How could the balance of taxes be optimally managed across the whole system, considering individuals, households and business?
- What are the longer-term impacts of tax policy on the economy?
- Trust in the tax system and the role of confidentiality: are there circumstances when confidentiality should be waived?
- What are the compliance implications of tax reliefs?
- Based on international evidence, what lessons can be learned about the appropriate balance of local, national and supra-national fiscal environmental measures?
- How and where in the events in the lifecycle of a business can HMRC most effectively support small businesses to get their tax right?
- How does compliance, and taxpayers’ perception of compliance, affect behaviour?
- How do customers' experiences in the lifecycle of their engagement with HMRC impact their behaviour (channel use, timely payment, compliance)? For example, how does channel preference differ depending on the nature of the customer’s query? What else impacts a customer’s channel choice, and therefore which channels HMRC should offer customers to make it easy to get tax right (including tax compliance)?
- How would timely payment of Self Assessment income and corporation tax impact on taxpayer’s administrative burdens?
- What are customer attitudes to HMRC collecting and using protected characteristics data?
- Based on international evidence, what is the optimal balance between tax and fiscal policy as opposed to regulation changes or other alternatives to achieve economic outcomes, e.g. economic growth/productivity?
- What are the cashflow implications of Self Assessment for income and corporation tax?
- What is the optimal tax mix across different taxes to maximise efficiency/reduce economic distortions?
- What is the scale of behavioural effects to tax policy changes across the economy, and how do these vary by tax?
- What are the barriers to using pre-payment that our Self Assessment customers face?
- How can HMRC best collaborate on research or analysis that brings together data from different departments and public bodies?
- How might the transition to a net zero economy affect the tax base in Scotland?
- How is productivity in managing such contact best measured over time to create a comparable time series?
- How is communication from customers impacted by the stage of contact, HMRC resource strategy and changing economic/political environments?
- What are the barriers and challenges for financially vulnerable Self Assessment and corporation tax customers on low-incomes or who have (or are at risk of falling into) tax debt and how can they be best supported?
- How will technological developments and organisational digital transformation impact customer contact demand patterns and productivity? (For example, will the queries advisers handle become increasingly complex with customers using digital self-serve to handle less complex queries?).
- Based on international examples, what are the key factors to support a growing economy and tax base?
- How can HMRC better understand the impact of using different digital communication channels compared to more traditional methods of inbound communication from customers?