Poor HMRC service levels harming business, CIOT finds
According to the CIOT, the survey findings indicated an appetite among the profession to make greater use of HMRC’s online services
Widespread dissatisfaction with HMRC service levels among tax agents and taxpayers makes it harder to do business, according to survey findings from the CIOT.
The online survey of 760 respondents, which was conducted in July and August, understood that people also doubt improvements will be made in the coming year, as 96% said they were ‘not very’ or ‘not at all’ confident in the prospect of improvements to the service.
The survey also found that 94% of those surveyed were either ‘somewhat’ or ‘extremely’ dissatisfied with HMRC’s service levels, while 95% said that the poor service levels have a ‘moderate or ‘significant’ negative impact on the ability to do business.
According to the CIOT, the survey findings indicated an appetite among the profession to make greater use of HMRC’s online services, though in most instances telephone contact was seen as a necessity.
This is because 89% of respondents said the reason for their contact could not have been resolved digitally, while 80% said they would make use of online resources if it would resolve their issue.
Respondents also indicated that they were experiencing long wait times to be connected to an HMRC adviser, as 58% reported waiting for more than half an hour to speak with HMRC’s dedicated helpline for agents. This figure increased to 85% for other HMRC helplines.
Gary Ashford, president of CIOT, said: “These results speak for themselves. Poor HMRC performance, such as delays in processing registration for taxes and the inability to quickly resolve matters doesn’t just harm the tax system, but has an impact on the wider economic climate too.
“HMRC’s attempts to deflect customer contact from phone calls towards their digital services and guidance on GOV.UK does not appear to be working. These survey results tell us that, while most agents and taxpayers want to be able to interact online, the necessary functionality does not exist, while the online guidance is not helping taxpayers find the answers they are looking for.”
He added: “HMRC needs to further invest in their digital offerings, so that taxpayers and agents can do more of what they need to do online. They also need to take steps to improve how they explain issues to taxpayers in their guidance. Only then will HMRC be able to achieve their ambition to reduce phone contact and have customers interact with them online.”
