In response to ‘considerable pressure from members’, the CIOT, ICAEW, ICAS and ATT have written a joint letter to Myrtle Lloyd, director general for customer services at HMRC, expressing ‘long-standing concerns’ over customer service levels.
‘In a virtually unprecedented action’, according to Sarah Saunders, personal tax manager at RSM, a number of issues have now been raised concerning the ‘problems this is causing tax professionals and the public’. This includes:
self-assessment registrations and refunds;
correspondence about VAT grouping and the option to tax;
section 455 refunds;
responses to technical queries;
corporation tax post and returns not processed;
performance on the agent dedicated line appears to be erratic;
waiting times on calls which can be cut off unexpectedly and promised call backs that do not happen; and
helpline hours that have not been restored to pre-pandemic levels.
In the letter, the professional bodies say they have all largely refrained from making public statements or media comment expressing concerns about HMRC’s performance standards. ‘However, we are under considerable pressure from our members to demonstrate what we are doing about poor HMRC performance levels and to raise the issues with government, parliamentary committees and the media. The impact on individuals and businesses of these delays is considerable.’
The letter requests a timescale for the publication of the PAC’s recommendations regarding HMRC’s customer service and recovery plans, on the roll-out of HMRC performance dashboard, and publication of HMRC performance statistics for the January to March and March or April 2022 quarters.
In response to ‘considerable pressure from members’, the CIOT, ICAEW, ICAS and ATT have written a joint letter to Myrtle Lloyd, director general for customer services at HMRC, expressing ‘long-standing concerns’ over customer service levels.
‘In a virtually unprecedented action’, according to Sarah Saunders, personal tax manager at RSM, a number of issues have now been raised concerning the ‘problems this is causing tax professionals and the public’. This includes:
self-assessment registrations and refunds;
correspondence about VAT grouping and the option to tax;
section 455 refunds;
responses to technical queries;
corporation tax post and returns not processed;
performance on the agent dedicated line appears to be erratic;
waiting times on calls which can be cut off unexpectedly and promised call backs that do not happen; and
helpline hours that have not been restored to pre-pandemic levels.
In the letter, the professional bodies say they have all largely refrained from making public statements or media comment expressing concerns about HMRC’s performance standards. ‘However, we are under considerable pressure from our members to demonstrate what we are doing about poor HMRC performance levels and to raise the issues with government, parliamentary committees and the media. The impact on individuals and businesses of these delays is considerable.’
The letter requests a timescale for the publication of the PAC’s recommendations regarding HMRC’s customer service and recovery plans, on the roll-out of HMRC performance dashboard, and publication of HMRC performance statistics for the January to March and March or April 2022 quarters.
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