Automated tracking system for taxpayers could save £36m a year, study shows

HMRC could save an estimated 1.7 million hours of call handlers’ time every year if it implemented an automated tracking system for taxpayers to check the status of their queries a joint study by the CIOT and ICAEW has found.

The two professional bodies are calling for HMRC to invest in its services and staff after the publication of the study Tackling HMRC’s customer service challenge. The six-week study tracked attempts to contact HMRC across phonelines and webchats and found that more than one-third were made to chase progress on existing queries rather than to make a new enquiry.

The key findings showed that while improving customer service performance remained crucial a significant reduction in the need for agents and taxpayers to contact HMRC in the first place was vital. Only 33% of contact attempts to HMRC resulted in the query...