Digital tax system is key to good customer service, says HMRC

Some of HMRC’s customer service levels during 2022-23 have not been where they want them to be and HMRC officials are sorry to those who have been affected said Victoria Atkins financial secretary to the Treasury.

Responding to concerns raised in an open letter from ten professional bodies Ms Atkins said: ‘HMRC have seen unexpected demand for their services and strains on their resource which have affected performance.’ She said this had been caused in particular by the thousands of repayment claims driven by a small number of agents IT issues as HMRC improved system security and resilience and some resources being diverted to urgent priorities such as providing support for Ukraine visa processing.

She added: ‘HMRC are currently responding to around three-quarters of correspondence within 15 working days and successfully answering about 70 000 calls a day. Their...