Re:HMRC 'plans to share tax data with private firms'
by swombat on Saturday April 19, 2014 @11:44AM
(#7613677)
Not true - there is one team in Government that could do this: the gov.uk team. http://gov.uk is hands down the best government site I've ever seen. I'd trust those guys to be able to deliver it.
Re:HMRC 'plans to share tax data with private firms'
by jasiek on Saturday April 19, 2014 @12:13PM
(#7613754)
I takes a lot more than a team of dedicated people to bring something in government into completion. First - there has to be a political consensus within the department to make things happen, then a business case needs to be written and approved. A budget needs to be assigned (where to get the money is another problem), and it needs to be decided that it will be built in-house. Only then, you can actually start building things - the process above takes anywhere from 6 months to a year, sometimes more.
An API for tax data would have lots of possible applications, as a way of checking income for example. But it is doubtful that the government would ever have the skills to pull it off. They should either sell the data through a competent third party or make it open.