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January is one of the busiest months for HM Revenue & Customs with millions of people seeking support with their tax returns and other queries ahead of the January 31 filing deadline.
Last month, however, HMRC doubled down on its approach of giving taxpayers little to no notice of significant changes in the way it answers queries on its self-assessment helpline.
It is focusing its resources on those who have more complex self-assessment queries or people who are considered vulnerable. It wants to point more taxpayers towards its digital services, such as webchats.
However, by placing sudden restrictions on the self-assessment helpline at this critical time of year, HMRC is in effect strong-arming digital adoption, rather than encouraging it. If taxpayers are not using digital services as much as HMRC would like, then simply forcing them to go down that route is not the appropriate answer.
The approach appears to fly in the face of concerns raised by the chair of the House of Commons Treasury select committee, who has criticised the haste and lack of consultation in making sudden changes to phone support for taxpayers.
So what levels of customer service can taxpayers expect at this peak time of tax return preparation?
According to the latest statistics on HMRC performance, the number of phone calls the tax authority received in the year to November 2023 is about 1 per cent higher than last year. HMRC clearly hopes the volume will fall substantially in January, but if it remains in line with last year, the total number of phone calls during the month could be in the region of 4.2mn.
Of the 24.7mn calls received in the year to November 2023, HMRC attempted to handle about 19.2mn, meaning more than one in five calls did not make it through.
Based on our experience of phoning the advisers’ dedicated helpline, those statistics may worsen. It is not uncommon to have the line go dead once the call has been answered. This commonly happens when being put on hold or transferred to another person. Some days, we find this happens on every other call made. The time it takes calls to be answered can often be more than 30 minutes and sometimes as long as an hour.
According to HMRC’s own figures, the average call took over 22 minutes to answer in November, eight minutes longer than the previous year.
Issues do not appear to be confined to the helpline. When queries cannot be addressed in a call, taxpayers and advisers are directed to HMRC’s webchat services. HMRC claims more than two-thirds of calls can be answered faster through online services and that customer satisfaction with its online services is “at more than 80 per cent”. Some 97 per cent of self-assessment returns were filed online last year.
But we are finding significant delays in webchat queries being answered, in part because queries are often passed through multiple webchat advisers, usually until one is found with the appropriate expertise, before they can be dealt with.
Given that there is still huge demand from taxpayers for phone support, placing sudden limits on this service is arguably in breach of the HMRC charter. That states that HMRC will “provide services that are designed around what you need to do, and are accessible, easy and quick to use”. This sudden change in policy to its services does not appear to put the taxpayer’s needs first. It feels more driven by necessity due to a lack of resources to handle the demand.
Part of the problem with rushing through changes like this is that some taxpayers may not fully appreciate which queries will be answered, so could face a lengthy wait on the phone, only to be sent away to look for the answer online.
HMRC’s website now indicates that the helpline will be limited to questions relating to completing a tax return and tax payments or refunds, albeit the helpline itself seemingly contradicts this, stating that only queries for 2022-23 tax returns will be answered.
Taxpayers may simply want to give up in frustration but some care is needed. If an enquiry is opened into a taxpayer’s affairs by HMRC, when considering penalties HMRC will often ask whether the taxpayer contacted them and what guidance they have read, so it is sensible to keep a record of that.
Among those most affected by this sudden change to the phone support are those who need to amend last year’s tax return or make claims for tax relief which also share the January 31 deadline. Some taxpayers might therefore miss out on valuable tax refunds or get things wrong, potentially leading to interest and penalties, if they are unable to obtain the support they need.
Ultimately, HMRC is trying to deal with the hand it has been dealt by the Treasury. Unfortunately, taxpayers may find current customer service levels remain lacking.
The author is a tax partner at advisory firm RSM UK
