back to article Don't tell the Cabinet Office: HMRC is building its own online ID system

HMRC is pushing ahead with its own plans to build an online authentication portal following the decommissioning of the current Gateway portal in 2018, according to multiple sources. One source said the department is building its own authentication capability that will deal with businesses – something the Government Digital …

  1. Steve K

    May I just say...

    May I just say - what an omnishambles...

    One arm of Government afraid to talk to another, so both spending money on the same thing. Great.

    1. wolfetone Silver badge

      Re: May I just say...

      From bean to cup, they fuck up.

    2. glen waverley

      Re: May I just say...

      Err, not the same thing.

      Para 2 of article "One source said the department is building its own authentication capability that will deal with businesses – something the Government Digital Service's online authentication system Verify cannot do."

      As I read it, Verify is for individuals (eg you or me), HRMC's tool is for businesses (partnerships, trusts, small companies, large multi national conglomerates with multiple subsidiaries, panamanian trustee companies administering the affairs of a dutch stichting that owns a unit trust that owns a City office block, ...)

      1. glen waverley

        Re: May I just say...

        Replying to myself, must resist urge to flame self.

        There might be overlap between Verify and HMRC tool (tee hee, I said a rude word) in the case of a sole trader. Not the big game tho.

      2. Anonymous Curd

        Re: May I just say...

        That's just the hand waving to get it through CabO. Rest assured it'll end up doing individuals too. HMRC have a long, long history of doing identity verification and authentication for important reasons. Something like five hundred billion of them at last count. Verify was first supposed to be live in late 2013, then early 2014, then 2015 and so on and so forth. The fundamental problem is GDS have no idea what they're doing. Even stripping the solution back from its all-singing, all-dancing original design to the current simple API over Experian that it is now, they've consistently failed to deliver anything even remotely functional.

        I've personally delivered products for HMRC with 9 figure yield business cases that have had to sit on a shelf waiting for Verify to come about, and then long since moved on. This should have happened years ago.

  2. kmac499

    HMRC Copy, paste and send this

    To: id-sales@estonia.gov.ee

    Subject: New ID system for major client

    Message:

    Please send a current price list for your proven digital ID system..

    Implementation Aug-18

    Love and Kisses HMRC

    1. macjules

      Re: HMRC Copy, paste and send this

      Interesting how HMRC refuses most responses for FOI requests on the grounds that such requests would cost more than the stipulated £600 to the taxpayer to fulfil. An example can be viewed here.

      On a positive note, £1.3Bn overhead to raise £1Bn - HMRC are starting to get better. Soon they will be down to just £1.05Bn costs to raise £1Bn.

      1. wikkity

        Re: such requests would cost more than the stipulated £600

        It would be interesting to do a FOI request asking how many requests were not performed because they would cost more than £600

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Meh

          Re: such requests would cost more than the stipulated £600

          It would be interesting to do a FOI request asking how many requests were not performed because they would cost more than £600

          I expect they would respond:

          Researching and analysing this large volume of data would exceed the appropriate cost limit of £600. Consequently under s12 (1) FOIA, the Department is not obliged to comply with your request and we will not be processing it further.

          1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge
            Unhappy

            Re: such requests would cost more than the stipulated £600

            re

            "Researching and analysing this large volume of data would exceed the appropriate cost limit of £600. Consequently under s12 (1) FOIA, the Department is not obliged to comply with your request and we will not be processing it further."

            I'd imagine thats now their stock reponse - probly now automated.

      2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: HMRC Copy, paste and send this

        "On a positive note, £1.3Bn overhead to raise £1Bn - HMRC are starting to get better. Soon they will be down to just £1.05Bn costs to raise £1Bn."

        To be fair, the claim is that a one-off dev cost of £1.3B will then annually generate an extra £1B of tax revenue.

        Of course, we all are aware of the accuracy of Govt. estimates and time scales. It'll probably cost at least double and only raise £250M annually. if it works at all. Assuming it does, that an ROI period of more like 5 years instead of the estimated 14 or so months.

  3. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    Oh really ?

    "Last year HMRC was awarded £1.3bn to "build one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world", which the department reckons will yield £1bn in extra tax revenue after 2020."

    No, no, not at all. The HMRC was given a first installment of £1.3bn to waste on a project that will endure until 2020, burn billions more every year and amount to nothing much before it is scrapped and swept under the rug.

    FTFY

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps if they simply collected the right tax from corporations as opposed to doing sweetheart deals with them, they could raise an extra billion or six.

    I look forward to HMRC calling me and asking how much I'd like to pay this year.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Holy crap

    Does nobody at HMRC know the difference between AUTHENTICATION and AUTHORISATION?

    * AUTHENTICATION proves you are who you say you are

    * AUTHORISATION says you are allowed to perform a particular action - for example, you can look at the tax records of company XYZ Ltd

    HRMC needs to record, along with each taxable entity, a list of authorised individuals who can access it.

    Authorisation is not (or need not be) a function of the authentication system.

    How difficult is this to understand?

    1. Dr. Mouse

      Re: Holy crap

      Exactly what I though: Use Verify to Authenticate an individual, and it's own internal system to Authorise that individual to do something.

      1. Vic

        Re: Holy crap

        Use Verify to Authenticate an individual, and it's own internal system to Authorise that individual to do something.

        That's a potential minefield when you have firms of accountants; you need to authenticate someone as a member of that firm, and that means having the firm's owner/controller maintain a list of people who are authorised for each potential client.

        It gets messy real quick...

        Vic.

      2. jonathanb Silver badge

        Re: Holy crap

        Except that sitting in an accountant's office, it is a computer that logs onto the gateway, not an individual. We use the permissions facilities supplied by Sage to control who can use it to file returns. The Sage programs, Payroll, VAT, Corporation Tax, Self Assessment and so on each have their own logins and email addresses.

    2. BurnT'offering

      Re: along with each taxable entity, a list of authorised individuals who can access it.

      I think your schema needs normalising

  6. Wolfclaw

    HMRC calling Verift slow is a bit of cheek, for a department whose staff move slower than a droplet of tar pitch !

    1. Dabooka

      I know YMMV

      but on the few occasions I've had to call them up it's been sorted quickly and efficiently. Granted for what I assume were minor queries, but still not as arduous as I expected.

      My missues has had lots of dealings through her work and found pretty much the smae thing, but I'm not sure if they have a desiganted SPOC or two.

  7. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    "..will yield £1bn in extra tax revenue.."

    Or they could just ask Bernie Eccleston to cough up his alleged £2bn in unpaid taxes.

    Or in fact all the other people whose details they have been passed.

    1. Rich 11

      Re: "..will yield £1bn in extra tax revenue.."

      But then Bernie and co wouldn't dip into their wallets* and donate some trifling sum** to swell the coffers of whichever bland and obsequious party happens to be in power this decade.

      * Which are kept in an offshore jacket pocket, for obvious reasons

      ** Trifling in their minds, not those of anyone else

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon

        Re: "..will yield £1bn in extra tax revenue.."

        I'm often amazed at the low sums involved in corruption. I mean, I'm sure it all adds up and everything, but the amounts are peanuts for corporations.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          Re: "..will yield £1bn in extra tax revenue.."

          "I'm often amazed at the low sums involved in corruption. I mean, I'm sure it all adds up and everything, but the amounts are peanuts for corporations."

          And in most cases, so are the fines, if caught. The risk analysis is probably a no brainer.

  8. David Roberts

    Just to note

    The two factor add on to the Government Gateway is up and running.

    I assume their note about "those who have difficulty using Verify" includes all the current Gateway clients.

    Had reason to access my account yesterday and went through the extra steps.

    Thankfully so far I haven't had to try and use Verify.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    digitally advanced tax administration needs to be more inclusive.

    I actually have good experiences with the existing gateway.

    Where I have a problem is in their insistence on using PDF Forms for some types of submission. I can't get this to work on any Linux computers, Adobe stopped supporting pdf Forms on Linux a long time ago; and HMRC support's response is always, 'perhaps you can find a windows computer and try it on that.'

    I hope in that 1.3bn for a modern digitally advanced tax administration, they could find time to buy a trusted certificate as well, instead of expecting people to add trust chains for an issuer that no-one has heard of.

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