HMRC service levels continue to undermine Charter commitments, says CIOT

The HMRC Charter annual report,¹ published yesterday, includes a report from the Charter Stakeholder Group,² on which CIOT is represented. It includes the findings of a survey carried out earlier this year on whether tax agents and taxpayers believe HMRC are meeting their Charter standards.

The survey received nearly 1,650 responses, with complaints about service levels a recurring theme. It found that:

• “Being responsive” scored the lowest of the Charter standards, with an average score of just 2.4 out of 10
• “Making things easy” and “getting things right” also scored poorly, at 2.8 and 3.5 respectively
• The remaining standards – “being aware of your personal situation”, “treating you fairly”, “recognising that someone can represent you”, “mutual respect” and “keeping your data secure” – scored higher at 4.1, 5.0, 5.7, 5.6 and 6.8 respectively.

Richard Wild, CIOT’s Head of Tax Technical, who sits on the Charter Stakeholder Group, said:

“This is the second year we have undertaken this survey, and the results continue to reflect the complaints we hear from our own members. Significant time is lost every day for members, their clients, and indeed HMRC themselves, due to delays and inefficiencies in dealing with HMRC.

“The three standards on responsiveness, ease and accuracy were by far the lowest scoring, which is disappointing as between them they represent the ‘health’ of the tax system.”

The survey also showed that nearly one quarter of respondents are not aware of the existence of the Charter, rising to almost one third among taxpayers alone, with nearly nine in ten respondents also believing there is a lack of accountability for HMRC’s poor performance.

Last summer, the CIOT undertook its own survey to understand the impact of HMRC’s service levels.³ Among the findings were:

• 94 per cent of respondents were either ‘somewhat’ or ‘extremely’ dissatisfied with HMRC’s service levels.
• 95 per cent said that poor service levels have a ‘moderate’ or ‘significant’ negative impact on the ability to do business.
• 95 per cent said that poor service levels have a ‘moderate’ or ‘significant’ negative impact on the costs of doing business.

HMRC’s own surveys, such as its Individuals, Small Businesses and Agents Customer Survey 2023,⁴ also report a decline in ratings of their experiences with and perceptions of HMRC across a range of measures.

Richard Wild added:

“The combined picture painted by all of these surveys is one of the damaging impacts caused by poor HMRC customer service. Businesses are prevented from operating effectively due to the inability to obtain timely registrations or responses. Taxpayers’ legitimate refunds are withheld or delayed. Guidance and correspondence from HMRC is misleading or incorrect. All these things are inhibitors on growth and investment.

“We are pleased to see the government’s recognition of HMRC’s customer service problems,⁵ which itself references our survey findings. We would urge them to focus their investment on both customer service and compliance if they are to meet their objectives to kickstart economic growth.”

Notes for editors:

1. HMRC Charter annual report: 2023 to 2024.
2. The Charter Stakeholder Group includes representatives from professional bodies, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group, and the Admin Burdens Advisory Board. It meets regularly with HMRC to provide feedback to HMRC on how it is performing against its Charter, and prepares an annual evaluation to include within HMRC’s Charter annual report.
3. Poor HMRC service levels harming business, CIOT survey finds. The survey received 749 responses in total, including 651 from agents, and 98 from individual and business taxpayers.
4. Individuals, Small Businesses and Agents Customer Survey 2023.
5. Labour’s Plan to Close the Tax Gap.