Moving tax returns admin offshore 'not permitted'

Date: 13th August 2009

The UK tax authority has poured cold water on claims that it might be getting ready to outsource some of its processes relating to self assessment tax returns and other taxation data.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) was reported by Computer Weekly to be preparing to send administrative work to India, where costs are lower.

This would come as part of a project called "Quantum", designed at saving the organisation just over £200 million through collaboration with IT contractors Aspire.

In all, the value of this contract is thought to be worth over £8 billion.
HMRC suggested in a response to the report that the tax return processing would not be moved overseas after all.

A spokesman for the authority said: "The contract does not permit IT services to be delivered from outside of the UK and we currently have no plans to change this."

HMRC was caught up in a high-profile data security lapse in late 2007, when personal details of around 25 million UK residents were lost.

The information was contained on two password-protected discs which went missing.