Poor HMRC – seemingly under fire wherever you look. You needed only open The Guardian or Daily Mail last week to be immersed in headlines decrying HMRC chiefs for their 'chronic incapability'.

The tax body's bosses were grilled by MPs on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) last Monday over the credibility of their £35bn estimate of the UK's tax gap, and their perceived leniency around the tax affairs of big businesses like Google, Facebook and Amazon. Once again, the body came in for a slew of negative headlines.

While it's unrealistic to expect HMRC to be the apple of the nation's eye, I for once would like to write in defence of the tax man. I work for a company which designs and implements employee share schemes, and as someone who deals with HMRC day in, day out, I am really struggling to match the view that HMRC is 'chronically incapable' with the reality. With this in mind, I'd like to raise some points that are too often forgotten by the HMRC critics.