Publication featured in Accountancy Age and This is Money.

Taxpayers spent a total of 719 years and eight months on the phone to HMRC in the year to June 30 2024 as under-resourcing continues to cause HMRC’s customer service to deteriorate.

The average call length to HMRC has increased 19% in the past year, rising from 22 minutes and 41 seconds to 27 minutes and two seconds. In in the last three months alone, this increased by 5% from the previous quarter.

This figure could be even higher as it only accounts for the 42% of calls received to HMRC that were handled by an advisor. The remaining calls were deflected, played a busy message or saw the customer abandon the call whilst in the queue.

Neela Chauhan, partner in our London office, says that long wait times make it more difficult for individuals and business to resolve issues with HMRC. Taxpayers also run an increased risk of receiving late filing and payment penalties as they wait to speak to HMRC regarding tax problems.

Neela Chauhan says: “Too frequently, when the Government talks about increasing HMRC funding, it ends up being for tax investigations. It’s vitally important that HMRC gets extra funding to improving its very poor customer service.”

“Delays in processing customer queries also hinder HMRC’s ability to resolve tax issues. This in turn reduces the amount of tax HMRC collects. It is also in HMRC’s best interest to end the customer service crisis.”

The increase in call waiting times comes as 35,000 customers made complaints to HMRC in the past year, a 65% increase. HMRC also paid £718,000 in compensation to customers for delays over the last 12 months.

A bar chart to show increasing average wait times from an average of 22 minutes 41 seconds in the second quarter of 2023-24, to the 27 minutes and 2 seconds average in the first quarter of 2024-25.

*Source: HMRC performance data, Year end June 30

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