A CIOT survey across July and August 2023 has found that poor HMRC service levels are making it harder to do business. The survey received responses from 651 agents and 98 HMRC ‘customers’ (some busineses and some individual taxpayers).
In something of a difficult read for HMRC, the poll revealed that around 95% of respondents are dissatisfied with HMRC’s service levels, not confident that things will improve over the next 12 months and, critically, that poor service levels have a ‘moderate’ or ‘significant’ negative impact on the ability to do business.
CIOT President Gary Ashford summed up the impact of the findings. ‘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,’ he said. ‘Businesses are left unable to trade properly, individuals are left without much needed repayments, and costs spiral as they repeatedly chase HMRC for progress updates.’
Ashford also noted problems with HMRC’s policy of directing queries to its digital services: ‘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.’
A CIOT survey across July and August 2023 has found that poor HMRC service levels are making it harder to do business. The survey received responses from 651 agents and 98 HMRC ‘customers’ (some busineses and some individual taxpayers).
In something of a difficult read for HMRC, the poll revealed that around 95% of respondents are dissatisfied with HMRC’s service levels, not confident that things will improve over the next 12 months and, critically, that poor service levels have a ‘moderate’ or ‘significant’ negative impact on the ability to do business.
CIOT President Gary Ashford summed up the impact of the findings. ‘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,’ he said. ‘Businesses are left unable to trade properly, individuals are left without much needed repayments, and costs spiral as they repeatedly chase HMRC for progress updates.’
Ashford also noted problems with HMRC’s policy of directing queries to its digital services: ‘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.’
