Tax is a broad topic, so it’s inevitable that as we start to identify user needs and create tax content on GOV.UK we’ll come across areas that are part of work being done by other transition teams at GDS.
To help us avoid duplicating work or content on charities and tax, we’re collaborating with the GOV.UK team who are bringing Charity Commission content onto GOV.UK.
This week we held a joint workshop with HMRC, Charity Commission and GDS staff working on transition.
Diversity of users
As I and other content designers in the HMRC transition team have started to research and draft content on charities and tax, an obvious challenge has been the diversity of the audience.
Some users will be new charity trustees, unsure of what their responsibilities are around tax. Some will be charity donors, who want to know if their donations affect how much tax they pay.
The size of charities will also have some bearing on the knowledge they have - we’re currently working under the assumption that larger charities will have in-house finance experts and accountants, but what about small charitable community organisations or churches?
(This also ties in with the issue of ‘low demand content’, as covered on Padma’s blog a few weeks back.)
How working together helps
Working with the GOV.UK team transitioning Charity Commission content to GOV.UK helps us make sure we capture user needs, avoid duplicating content and to share ideas. For users, whether they’re charity trustees, donors or members of the public, it doesn’t matter what part of government this content comes from. They just need to find the information they’re looking for.
For someone like me who's new to working in government, it's refreshing to not be working in silos.
Starting points
This week’s workshop perhaps raised more questions than answers, but this was a great starting point. Here are some of the ideas and further issues we'll be looking at:
Where Charity Commission user needs and HMRC user needs meet
A member of the public looking into starting a charity might want advice both on whether setting up a charity is the best solution for what they want to do and the tax implications of that decision.
Topic categories it might be useful to test with users
Setting up a charity, fundraising, reporting, accounting, for example. Hopefully these will help when we’re thinking about ways users might browse content on the site, related links and when creating content in both the HMRC and GOV.UK transition teams.
What language we should be using
Charities of a certain size ‘register’ with the Charity Commission (or their equivalents in Scotland and Wales) so that they can be on the charity ‘register’, but they apply for recognition as a charity (for tax purposes) with HMRC. However, they might also ‘register’ for VAT. Further keyword and user research will helps us to see what users themselves actually use to search for this content.
Areas that we’re not so sure how to deal with yet
For example, ‘public benefit’ is a concept central to lots of the topics we’ll be looking at for GOV.UK in relation to charities, because it not only describes the main purpose of a charity, but also links in with how charities are eligible for tax relief.
Issues around devolution
The Charity Commission is part of the GOV.UK transition, but it only regulates charities in England and Wales. What about the needs of users in Scotland and Northern Ireland?
Next steps
Talking. Lots more talking. The HMRC transition team will have more workshops with HMRC to look at user needs from a tax perspective, before talking again with the Charity Commission.
We’ll continue to work closely with the GOV.UK transition team working on the Charity Commission transition, to make sure we’re addressing user needs in the best way and not duplicating or creating redundant content.
Jaimes will conduct some user research with people working in charities to help us get a better understanding of the needs, behaviours and knowledge of these users.
If you work in the charity sector, please let us know your thoughts on how we can make charity and tax content meet your needs.
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