"Refer to Policy" or "Why Can't You Answer My Question Quicker?" There comes a time in the life of every HM Revenue and Customs officer where he has to deal with Policy. There are - to say the least - several policy teams in HMRC, and the relationship between them and the ground staff is as constant as the British weather. I worked in two main areas of HMRC. As a compliance officer for Cream Tea Duty, and managing processing staff for Slap And Tickle Tax. Over the time, I got to see several different aspects of Policy.  As some accountants delight in reminding us, tax law is made by Parliament (or until recently, by the EU). One of Policy's jobs is to decide how that law can be put into practice in the real world. That could involve negotiation with trade bodies and the input of experienced compliance officers in Units of Expertise. The Units of Expertise aren't part of Policy as such, but bring practical experience, and take some of the weight off Po...

  I said here that HM Revenue and Customs is not an interchangeable hive like 'The Borg' off  of 'Star Trek', even if that's what the Cabinet Office aspires to. Senior managers, and the IT wide boys think they'll be able to make it happen, but first they'll have to make all the taxes and duties fit the same box. Talking from personal experience, there's a big difference between SATT (Slap And Tickle Tax) and CTD (Cream Tea Duty). There's a lot of Slap And Tickle in the world, and that means a constant stream of people liable to be registered for the Tax. By comparison, there's a relatively small pool of traders need to be registered for Cream Tea Duty. But they bring in a comparative amount of money. When it comes to registration, there are specialist teams to deal with both taxes, but with Cream Tea Duty, a compliance officer will be much more involved in getting the trader registered because there's much more needs to be confirmed about th...