People waiting on hold to HMRC for more than half an hour would receive a £30 credit against their tax bill under Reform UK, Robert Jenrick has announced.
The Reform UK Treasury spokesman said the plans were aimed at speeding up the tax office’s services for small businesses.
Compensation for long waits
Speaking at a press conference in London, Mr Jenrick said: “Last year, MPs were accusing HMRC of deliberately degrading its own services to force people onto the website. It’s a disgrace.
“Frankly, it is offensive to working people and I have had enough.
“So, we will give HMRC a big incentive to actually provide proper customer service.
“I’m announcing today that under a Reform government, if you spend more than half an hour waiting for HMRC to answer your call, you will get a £30 credit off your tax bill. If HMRC delay, well, they can repay.
“And to make sure that the staff actually hit their targets, we’ll tie the pay of senior HMRC officials to their customer service performance.”
To prevent abuse, the tax credit would be limited to two occasions in a given tax year, the party has said.
Data protection and tax plans
At the press conference, Mr Jenrick also pledged to scrap UK privacy rules in favour of a “light-touch” approach to data protection as part of a bid to slash “red tape” for businesses.
Treasury spokesman for the party Robert Jenrick said the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which mirrors EU legislation and was adopted as domestic law after Brexit, had “strangled” tech firms and small enterprises.
The framework would be replaced by rules modelled on New Zealand’s privacy legislation, which is seen as more lenient, Reform said.
Elsewhere, Mr Jenrick set out plans to widen a tax-relief scheme for investors in small businesses in the UK in a bid to allow relatives to claim advantages more easily.
He also promised to reverse the rise in employer national insurance contributions and changes to inheritance tax on farms while introducing a “hard work bonus” that scraps income tax on overtime.
Labour response
A Labour Party spokesperson said Reform had “once again skated over the detail of their own policies because they simply don’t have the answers”.
They added: “Robert Jenrick can’t say which important data safeguards he would scrap and whether it would put people’s personal details at risk. He’s making it up as he goes along.
“With Andy Burnham’s leadership, Labour is backing small businesses, reviving our high streets and driving growth in every postcode.”
