MPs issue warning to anyone who needs to deal with HMRC

Taxpayers who need to speak to someone at HMRC have been warned they now face an average wait on the phone of 16 minutes and 24 seconds. The waiting time in April 2023 – the most recent figure available – was up from 12 minutes and 22 seconds the year before.

The BBC says 63% of callers waited more than 10 minutes to speak to an adviser, up from 46% in 2021-22. MPs have been tolvery year since 2018.

HMRC has encouraged people to speak to an online chatbot instead of waiting, closing its main self-assessment line over the summer, and has also encouraged people to send text messages to get an answer.

MPs have also been told that taxpayers are now being pursued for ‘trivial’ amounts of money by HMRC, that there are fewer prosecutions for tax offences and HMRC is not quick enough to spot mistakes.

MPs heard about a case in which a taxpayer received more than 10,000 letters due to an agent registering companies for VAT at the taxpayer’s address.

A spokesman for HMRC said: “Millions more people used our highly-rated online services last year – saving them waiting on the phone and freeing up our advisers to deal with those people who need extra support. People used our app and online services more than 200 million times last year with an 80% satisfaction rate, while three-quarters of all customer correspondence was answered in 15 working days – a significant improvement on the 45% in 2021-22.”