It seems that less than 50% of all tax specialists had a “positive overall customer experience” when dealing with HMRC last year (a fall of 20% from the previous year).
That at least is the conclusion of HMRC's "customer" survey published in its annual report this week.
The FT reports that 48% of agents reported a positive overall experience in 2021 when dealing with HMRC, down from 61% the previous year.
The poor showing is partly down to the post Covid backlog.
The Charter Stakeholder Group, which comprises representatives of leading tax and accountancy bodies, noted that there are “several deep-rooted issues” and that while the pandemic has had an impact, “HMRC’s service levels in many areas have been unsatisfactory for several years.”
David Feldman ex HMRC and now tax adviser saud:
“Overcoming HMRC inertia remains the most difficult area for me and it’s difficult to explain that to clients
Technical responses from HMRC are more often than not very poor, showing lack of experience and training.”
HMRC said:
“We’ve made solid progress towards offering our customers a better service, reducing work that had built up during the pandemic and clearing a backlog of around 1.5mn items of post.
The challenging economic outlook means we expect to see continuing pressure on our services for some time — but we’re focused on recovering our customer services, compliance yield and debt balance.”
So that's alright then!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Of course the technical responses are poor! Anyone with a modicum of experience and knowledge has long gone!
ReplyDeleteHMRC sacked and/or paid off their most skilled and experienced staff from 2010 onwards.
ReplyDeleteIf you understand that the people running HMRC aren't terribly bright, it all makes perfect sense: they optimise waste and consistently weaken 'customer' service - all while turning a blind eye to issues such as poor performance, misconduct and staff bullying each other.
And how long will they keep using Covid as an excuse? HMRC were in utter chaos long before the lab leak!