Accountants struggle to use HMRC services, ACCA says

New survey data from accountancy body ACCA has revealed that UK accountants are struggling to work with HMRC services. 

In a survey conducted on 2017 ACCA members, 52% of respondents said HMRC service levels were negatively impacting productivity and efficiency, either directly or for their clients. 

In addition, 93% of respondents reported that HMRC needed to make drastic improvements across at least three key areas, including reducing call waiting times, improvements to call handling systems, and improving communication. 

Overall, ACCA accountants raised many issues and concerns within the survey such as struggling for weeks or even months to get simple actions dealt with, such as VAT registration numbers and authorising a tax agent. 

Regarding the survey results, Glenn Collins, head of technical and strategic engagement at ACCA, said: “Many of our members have raised with us, over a number of years, their struggles and difficulties, in working effectively with HMRC services. There is often despair when accountants and financial professionals have exhausted all other routes and have to contact HMRC, as they know they are likely to end up wasting many hours sorting basic tax issues, costing time and money for themselves, their clients and also HMRC.

“The key changes ACCA is calling for in HMRC services are improvements to communications. More effective working with qualified accountants, more use of email, and an improvement in response times to all communications would greatly ease the difficulties our members have expressed.”