2024-27 HMRC Grant Funding Q&A

Yes, but one of the organisations has to act as the lead organisation. They would take responsibility for the performance, and the financial allocation to the other organisations. We would just deal with the lead organisation who would have to meet the eligibility criteria.

No. We only accept one bid from any organisation, so organisations couldn't submit a single application and be part of another partnership application.

Part of the eligibility criteria is to be able to identify and help customers who have issues related to HMRC services. If you haven't got tax experience, we would really need to understand the value that your organisation would bring and how it would be able to deliver those objectives.

If you think you have the HMRC customer base and the demand for tax advice, and you can demonstrate that you can meet the criteria requested in the advert, then please do consider an application.

Yes. We are looking for a mix of national, regional, and smaller community-based organisations. We are looking for an even spread geographically and throughout the country.

There are no particular qualifications that we are looking for. Please note any relevant qualifications or experience on the application you have that you feel would be relevant.

Tax Credits is an HMRC service at the moment but won't be when customers move to Universal Credit. We would need to understand how you will adapt your services and experience to deal with other HMRC services.

The service doesn’t have to have existed previously to be able to apply for the funding, so you can apply for a new service. But we need to have some confidence in the organisation's ability to deliver that service, so that would need to be demonstrated in the application.

It is a three year programme, so we're not taking single year applications.

No. The funding that we pay out will be the same amount for each of the three years. If you apply for different amounts across the three years, we will take an average of those amounts and pay the same each year.

It is not as simple as just measuring the cost per customer because the services offered will differ between organisations. There will be an in-depth review of the whole application and the service offering in conjunction with costs and expected outcomes.

The application form is what we want in the first instance. If organisations are successful, we will be validating their three years accounts, but at the initial stage please just send back your completed application form.

We haven't set a number of organisations that we want to fund, that will very much depend on what happens at the end of the stage two sift. We think it will be somewhere between 12 and 18 organisations.

The lead organisation is the one that we would be dealing with from a performance, financial and grant agreement perspective. It would be up to them to make the decision on any organisations that had less than three years financials in place.

There is a way to do a signature electronically, but we are happy for you just to type in your name for the application stage.

We wouldn't be doing anything above what information is currently available. We'd provide guidance on new initiatives or changes, but on existing tax regime it would be expected that organisations would have the skills, or would know where to access guidance on GOV.UK etc.

For the purpose of this funding, it is an organisation in the social economy whose main objectives are to have a social impact rather than make a profit for their owners or shareholders.

No - there are no requirements for match funding.

The information is available on GOV.UK. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/hmrc-pledges-55-million-in-partnership-funding-to-support-customers-who-need-extra-help

No. One of the customer groups we are looking to help are those who experience age-related difficulties which often includes digitally excluded customers.

Yes – it is up to organisations what they wish to include in their costings as long as it is outlined in the application.

Yes. We can provide access to our Extra Support Team and the Voluntary Sector Tax Resolution Service.

As Community Benefit Societies are classed as Voluntary and Community sector your organisation would come under this category in the eligibility criteria, however, please be aware that all other eligibility criteria must also be met for the application to be considered.

We'll look at how you as an organisation monitor the quality of the service you provide and how you ensure that the advice being given out by advisers is accurate and in line with HMRC’s current processes and policies. We would expect to see a measure of assurance within your processes.

HMRC will require overall facts and figures of customers served for the purposes of our reporting. If there's an instance where a customer requires additional support from HMRC services regarding a complex query, then specific customer information will be required to deal with this.

The lead organisation would need to submit a single bid and take responsibility for issuing funding to partners, it's entirely up to the lead organisation how many partners they have and how funding is distributed.

CICs come under the bracket of a social enterprise and would therefore be eligible to apply.

No, the programme is also open to organisations that can provide support through additional channels other than face to face such as telephone, email/web chat, workshops and their website.

Yes, a maximum threshold would be set for 50% of the lead organisation’s turnover per year (last audited accounts).

Unfortunately, due to the grant funding agreement we are not able to support joint bids. If organisations were to go into partnership, the lead organisation will be required to meet the eligibility requirements regarding turnover in order to apply.