Jim Harra confirmed to agents on Wednesday the closure of VAT and corporation tax helplines across three Fridays in February and March, giving the HMRC staff time to work through the backlog of post.
The decision to close these phone helplines comes shortly after a successful ‘test and learn’ closure of these lines in December. Harra explained that the dedicated time to focus on post had enabled the department to clear more than 4,000 additional pieces of post each day.
He said:
“We saw an increased productivity rate among colleagues, above our initial planning assumptions, who were able to focus on the task without stopping mid-way through to take a phone call.”
The VAT and corporation tax phone helplines will be closed on Fridays from 25 February until 25 March, although the VAT line will be open on the 4 March to cater for the month-end deadline.
When the phone lines were shuttered in December, HMRC received around 2,500 extra calls over the three Mondays after the Friday closures. Harra, though, said the department was still able to offer an “acceptable level of service”.
As per HMRC:
“We are temporarily closing two specialist phone lines on Fridays so we can work through our stocks of post more quickly to help us return to pre-pandemic service levels in these critical areas of work.
Temporarily closing these two phone lines was trialled in December and helped us clear more than 4,000 extra pieces of post on each day they were closed.
We understand the frustrations of customers and agents who are waiting for HMRC to get to their individual enquiry, we’re sorry that we can’t get to everyone more quickly and thank them for bearing with us.”
As I have noted before, if you want to get HMRC to action a long outstanding matter, contact your MP. There is a dedicated team (the Ministerial Correspondence Team) and email address within HMRC that deal with queries raised by MPs.
Tax does have to be taxing.
Tax Investigation Insurance
Having a Solar Protect Tax Investigation Insurance policy at your disposal means that should you be one of the many 1000's of businesses or individuals that are selected by HMRC each year to look into your tax affairs your own accountant (your tax return agent) can get on and defend you robustly.
You have the peace of mind knowing that your accountant's (your tax return agent) fees will be paid by the insurance without any Excess for you to find.
Tax Investigation Insurance is an insurance policy that will fully reimburse your accountants (your tax return agent) fees up to £100,000 if you are subject to enquiry by or dispute with HMRC.
A Solar Protect policy will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to:
- Deal with any correspondence from HMRC
- Attend any meeting with HMRC
- Appeal to the First-tier Tribunal or Upper Tribunal
- Having the security of knowing that fees will be met in full will enable your Accountant (your tax return agent) to defend your position robustly
Please click here for details.
HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"
Fridays off for HMRC staff or a serious attempt to deal with the backlog of post?
ReplyDeleteI understand there's a lack of critical thinking by the chinless wonders who manage HMRC, but isn't it the case that the more phone calls that go unanswered, the higher the post pile gets?
These f***wits talk a lot about innovative solutions etc, but there's never much evidence of it...lazy cants!!!
Definitely not a day off for staff. They will be dealing with the backlog of work that has piled up. As the article states.
DeleteBut then you have made your own mind up about it, and facts don't matter to you.
HMRC's laziness is demonstrated by the lack of imagination.
DeleteStupid cant.
A lack of imagination does not demonstrate laziness.
DeleteYou appear to have little grasp of the English language.
How is someone being transferred from answering phone queries to answering postal queries, without any say in the matter, a sign of laziness?
ReplyDeleteStupid cant!!!