HMRC Stakeholder Digest - 7 July 2023

Please see the following message from HMRC, which we are sharing for information:

The HMRC Stakeholder Digest provides a round-up of our latest news and updates, which we’d be grateful if you could share with your clients, customers, or members. 

Updates

Calls times to be included on more helplines​ 

​Following a successful trial, messages on the estimated time it will take to speak to an adviser will now be extended to more HMRC helplines from 4 July. ​ ​ 

The message will be played at the start of the call so customers can make an informed choice about whether they want to hang on, use our digital services or call back another time. ​ 

​Call wait time messages are based on the previous day’s average and will be included on the following Helplines:​ 

• Child Benefit ​ 
• Tax credits ​ 
• VAT ​ 
• Online services ​ 
• National Insurance​ 
• Construction Industry Scheme​ 
• Employers ​ 

​Expected call wait times are already given on the PAYE helpline. This has proved successful with a significant number of customers choosing to leave the queue and resolve their query elsewhere. We’ve been able to take more calls from customers who still need to speak to us, and wait times reduced from 40 minutes at the start of the trial, to consistently below 20 minutes. ​ ​ 

We want to be open and transparent about how long our customers can expect to wait and encourage the use of our digital services which are quicker and easier than calling us.

New toolkit supporting parents to claim Child Benefit online       

Our online Child Benefit claims service means the majority of parents can claim online at a time that suits them, and be paid quicker by claiming through GOV.UK.

To make sure as many parents as possible are benefiting, we’d really appreciate you sharing our Child Benefit Toolkit with your networks. This includes ready-to-share social media visuals (including Welsh language visuals and text), posters and suggested newsletter content, so please use these on your own channels to support parents to claim quickly and easily online.    

By logging in through the Government Gateway on GOV.UK or taking just a few minutes to set an account up – parents could receive their first payment in as little as three working days for a straightforward online claim.

Reminders

Alcohol Duty new rates and reliefs – get ready for the changes by 1 August 2023 

Businesses have until 1 August 2023 to prepare for the changes to the Alcohol Duty structure and the new reliefs, which include: 

• Small Producer Relief – supporting smaller producers of alcoholic products with a discounted rate of duty 
• a reduced rate for draught products (also known as Draught Relief) – supporting the hospitality industry by charging a separate, lower rate of duty on qualifying draught products
• transitional arrangements for producers and importers of some wine products – supporting those businesses with moving to the new method of calculating duty on their products.

To support you with the upcoming changes:

• we have published up to date guidance on GOV.UK in English and in Welsh
• we are running live webinars and making their recordings available too  
• we have launched a Small Producer Relief calculator to help smaller businesses work out how much alcohol duty they have to pay.

If you have any questions about the upcoming changes, please feel free to join one of our live webinars, where you can ask us directly.