Exemplar 18: Agent Online Self Serve
Published 1 June 2013
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A new online service for tax agents to transact easily with HMRC on behalf of their 8 million clients.
Department responsible
| Department | Permanent Secretary | Digital leader |
|---|---|---|
| HM Revenue and Customs | Lin Homer | Mark Dearnley |
Status
In beta. Private beta service in development.
Successes
Discovery stage completed.
Alpha Digital by Default Service Standard assessment passed in November 2014.
Challenges
The complexity of agent-client relationships makes this a difficult but very important exemplar to get right.
Researching with a range of diverse range of agents, with different user needs and ways of working, to improve the service while in private beta.
Next
Develop the private beta service to include more useful services for agents.
Work on meeting complex data needs.
Digital strategy statement
From the HM Revenue & Customs digital strategy, September 2014:
…making registering to act as an agent easier and quicker… agents will have the tools to take more control of their clients’ tax affairs and undertake transactions for them with minimal involvement from HMRC… any new IT services developed for individual customers should be available to agents.
Scope of exemplar
This is a new service for tax agents to work with HMRC online. It will let agents register to act on behalf of, and see information about, their clients, and to control a range of transactions on their behalf. These will be built on a new digital tax platform which will eventually replace the current HMRC Portal and be the default platform for new user-facing services.
Digital inclusion
GDS has mapped the exemplars against the digital inclusion scale to help show where these services may be difficult for some people to use. See the rating for Agent online self-serve.
Delivery Status
Discovery
Completed: Discovery - February 2013.
Read about the discovery phase.
Alpha
Completed: Tax platform alpha build - March to May 2013.
Completed: Discovery and development work with the identity assurance (IDA) team - December 2013 to March 2014.
Beta
Release paid agents service - date to be confirmed.
Further paid agents service releases - date to be confirmed.
Live
Service goes live (depending on Service Standard assessment) - date to be confirmed.
Anticipated volume
43k agent firms