The taxman joined twitter just before xmas and I’d encourage fellow tweeters, whether taxpayers or accountants, to follow twitter.com/hmrcgovuk (and by all means follow @TheTaxBuzz too!)
HMRC’s twitter policy statement says that if you follow this account, you can expect 1-2 tweets a day covering information about HMRC and tax, including news, publications, web content, consultations, speeches and publicity campaigns.
To date the emphasis has been on the forthcoming self assessment online tax return filing deadline but the taxman’s tweets have also contained useful tips re the VAT flat rate scheme, payroll and corporation tax changes.
HMRC also point out that they will never advise anyone of tax refunds through twitter or discuss personal issues through the twitter account. They also note that if you follow @HMRCgovuk, they will NOT automatically follow you back.
There is one flaw in the HMRC twitter strategy – and it’s one that is commonly made by twitter novices. Most followers will not read every tweet that appears in their twitter stream. This means that anyone, like the taxman, who tweets just once or twice a day will be lucky if many of their tweets are seen by all their followers.
I applaud this official move by the taxman onto twitter – it doesn’t have to be taxing!
This article has been written by Mark Lee and originally published on the Tax Advice Network. Mark is Chairman of the Tax Advice Network and also runs 3 professional networks, 3 blogs as well as can also be found on Twitter, Linked In etc.