Back

Digital Services Tax

The government introduced 2% tax on search engines, social media platforms and online marketplaces operating in the UK from 1 April 2020.

I worked as part of a multidisciplinary team to design and develop a service to enable businesses to register, submit and pay digital services tax.

I collaborated with stakeholders in interviews and workshops to design a map Illustrating different parts of HMRC estate involved in collection and administration of the digital services tax. I worked with a content designer, user researcher and stakeholders to produce a service map. I carried out desk research to produce a customer journey map.

I designed and prototyped user flows for registration and returns. I demonstrated prototypes to stakeholders and participated in user research.

The service passed Discovery and Alpha assessments. It was projected to raise £440m per year for the government.

Discovery maps

HMRC estate

HMRC estate involved in collection and administration of the Digital Services Tax

Customer journey

Desk based research customer journey map

Alpha maps

Service mapping workshop

Outcome of service mapping workshop

User flows

Registration

Snapshot: Group registration process

Getting maps on a wall

3 men stood close to a wall, discussing the contents of maps placed on a wall.

James Nicholson, Gav Adam and Karl Parton

Screens

A screen for the account homepage of the digital services tax.

Links to payment, return and account history

A screen showing a list of companies within a group who are liable to pay the digital services tax.

Displaying companies within a group, annual allowance and group liability on single screen