Out of the 800 tax agents in HMRC’s latest webinar, 504 (63%) admitted to not feeling confident when helping clients understand the aspects of HMRC’s simple assessments, however this number dropped to 3% after experts from the tax authority outlined the new tax returns
On 5 October, HMRC ran its first Talking Points Webinar on simple assessments, explaining how the new system works and the benefits for taxpayers, while also taking questions from the 800 agents who joined the web session.
The session started with a poll asking how confident agents felt when explaining to clients what HMRC’s new simple assessments were and how they worked. Out of the 800 agents, 504 admitted to being ‘not at all confident’.
Once HMRC had explained the simple assessment process with regards to penalties and benefits and provided a variety of taxpayer examples this dropped to only 24 (3%) out of the 800 still feeling not confident.
Simple assessments have been introduced by HMRC under what the tax authority is calling ‘making tax easier’. They are a new way of collecting tax while phasing out the annual tax return.
From September 2017 simple assessments will apply to two groups. These are new state pensioners with income more than the personal tax allowance in the tax year 2016 to 2017; and PAYE taxpayers who have underpaid tax and who cannot have that tax collected through their tax code.
All existing state pensioners who complete a tax return because their state pension is more than their personal allowance (£11,500) will be removed from self assessment in the tax year 2018 to 2019.
Through a simple assessment HMRC will use data it already holds to calculate what tax is owed. Currently, simple assessment is only available for employees through the PAYE system and does not apply to the self employed.
In the webinar many agents asked whether their clients could opt out of the simple assessment process and continue to file self assessments. HMRC confirmed that taxpayers could continue filing self assessments if this is the process they preferred. The tax authority also confirmed that agents would be authorised to receive copies of their clients self assessments.
Individuals who want to stop receiving letters from HMRC and instead receive all their updates online can change their settings via their personal tax account.
At present payment reminders will not be issued to those using simple assessments but this is something HMRC is looking to introduce in the future.
An example of a simple assessment letter is available here 
simple_assessment_template.pdf
Report by Amy Austin
