e-Services Programme

XML & Inland Revenue 22nd May 2003

Andy GreenerAndy Greener

Inland Revenue (UK)Inland Revenue (UK)

e-Services Programmee-Services Programme

IR at a Glance (1)Business

Administer & collect all direct taxes in the UK:

- Personal/Sole Trader/Trusts/Partnerships (SA)

- Corporate (CT)

- National Insurance Contributions (NICs)

- Payroll Deduction of tax & NICs (PAYE)

- Tax Credits (NTC)

- Stamp Duties

- Student Loans, CGT, Inheritance Tax, PRT

Not:

- Excise & Customs Duties

- VAT, IPT, APD, Landfill Tax, etc

IR at a Glance (2)

• SA

- 30 million taxpayers

- 9 million SA forms issued annually

• CT

- 1.5 million corporate entities

- 520,000 liable for Corporation Tax

• PAYE

- 43 million NI accounts

- 53 million EoY Returns

• NTC

- 3 million applications

Drivers to Adopt XML

• Political

- All Government services available on-line by 2005

- Self-imposed take-up targets

- Internet focused >>> Internet standards

- electronic Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF)

- migration of legacy electronic formats (EDI, Magnetic media)

• Cost-saving/revenue enhancing

- Reduction in collection costs

- Improvements in efficiency

- Easier/better identification of risk

- Higher compliance

Enterprise Approach• e-Services Programme co-ordinating with Heads of Duty (HoDs)

• Hand-off generic services to Govt Gateway

- Registration & Enrolment

- Authentication & Authorisation

- Agent management

- Payment

• Common infrastructure (behind Govt Gateway)

• Provide basic browser access for all services (e-GIF requirement)

• Provide interfaces & support for third-party products

- Complete technical information packs

- Developer test service, “live” test service

• Portalisation

Challenges - internal• Configuration management of Schemas & Rules

- lack of repository-based products and tools

- Representation/support of rules (co-constraints)

• Moving away from the paper form mind-set

- Re-designing systems/interactions with taxpayers

• Planning for volume

- Re-architecting or scaling-up existing infrastructure

• e-Channel co-existence

- Internet, EDI, mag media

• XML penetration into back-end systems

Challenges - external

• Encouraging take-up

- Educating users (marketing)

- Encouraging third party software developers

- Mandatory e-filing

-PAYE EOY for medium/large co’s by April 2006

-All co’s by 2010, with incentive payments for smallest

• Working within the Govt Gateway framework

- Service availability

- Unsympathetic update cycles

- Volume issues

Where are we using XML?

• Everywhere!

- SA 4th year (EDI service turned off in next 2-3 years)

- XML, XML Schema, 10 - 15 Schema files

- PAYE 3rd year (EDI service remains for now)

- XML, XML Schema, 8 - 10 Schema files

- CT Phase A 1st year (No EDI legacy, still piloting)

- XML, XML Schema, 9 Schema files

- Phase B introduces XBRL embedded in XML

- NTC 1st year (No legacy)

- XML, XML Schema, 4-5 Schema files

- Common Core Schema for IR-wide data-types

What do we want from Tax XML?

• Common framework for tax transactions

- Reduce infrastructure costs

- Reduce Schema management/development costs

- Broaden range of services available

• Easier data interchange with other jurisdictions

• Ease of development for third parties

- Broaden applicability across jurisdictions

- Re-use of components