ICAEW is calling for the immediate creation of a cross-sector taskforce to address long-standing delays at HMRC, which it says have become a drag on the UK’s economic growth.
The emergency taskforce would be charged with identifying areas for support to end delays, as well as recommending improvements to HMRC’s service standards to enable business growth, ICAEW says.
Taxpayers and accountants are having to wait up to a year for HMRC to respond to queries over the phone or by post, ICAEW says, while callers report that they have waited for more than an hour before being cut off. Customer service staffing levels at HMRC have reduced from 25,500 to 19,500 people, causing long delays for both agents and taxpayers.
These delays were the biggest area of complaint made by ICAEW members in 2022, whether relating to financial or other resource constraints.
VAT registration for a new or growing business or re-registration where an existing business incorporates should be expected to happen quickly, the Institute says. Such businesses are growing and their administrative workload will double while they wait for HMRC to act.
ICAEW is increasingly of the view that HMRC is now trapped by its backlog and delays are now an anchor on the UK’s economic growth. The government needs to urgently tackle this issue if it is serious about building the ‘pillar of enterprise’, it says.
“The delays at HMRC are unacceptable, need to be addressed promptly and are acting as a drag on the UK’s economic growth,” ICAEW Chief Executive Michael Izza says.
“We’re calling on ministers to set up an emergency taskforce to identify steps to eliminate HMRC’s backlog and improve its service standards, so that in the future it supports, not inhibits, business growth and maximises the tax receipts needed to fund public services.”
The taskforce should include representatives from professional bodies and from business, who would be empowered to make recommendations to HMRC to improve its services and clear its backlog, ICAEW says.
“HMRC performs a vital function supporting businesses and growth, for example ensuring new businesses can register promptly for VAT, and its work is essential in collecting tax receipts to fund public services,” Izza continues.
“Despite this vital role and the commitment from hardworking civil servants, HMRC is often overlooked and overstretched, leading to problems, and we would be pleased to work with it to tackle these issues.”
It is unclear whether these waiting times relate to financial or other resource constraints, but the time it takes for HMRC to respond is perceived by many chartered accountants to be the single biggest obstacle to growth and tops the list of complaints by members, ICAEW says. It is a problem regardless of the means of communication being used, where intervention or action cannot be undertaken automatically.
Tax does have to be taxing.
Tax Investigation Insurance
Market leading tax fee protection insurance for businesses, sole traders and individuals. Protect yourself from accountancy fees in the event of an HMRC enquiry.
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 accountant's (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"
It's a different story when they want money from the public. Amazing how efficient they'll become then.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/return/hmrc-urged-drop-simply-inequitable-65pc-late-tax-charge/
And those 5500 from customer services left when they merged casework with call centres and trashed their terms and conditions in the last pay deal. These were people that knew how to work cases but we're shunted into the phones and paid just above min wage. There are now some tasks where no one knows how to work them as the people that did them previously have gone. You won't be told this when you ring (when the phone system works) but it is utter chaos and the bottom grades have just had enough non of this is thier fault but they take the brunt every single day.
ReplyDeleteI've had a look at what jobs are available within HMRC on the Civil Service job site. All I could find was a very small number of specialist roles (non jobs) for Project Manager, Technical Leads, Deputy Director rubbish. I searched four areas, London, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle. All the same type of positions and nothing at AO or O Grade.
ReplyDeleteHMRC isn't recruiting. There's no chance of this backlog being reduced or telephones answered without thousands of people being employed. Which isn't happening, so what's the point of cross party task forces just to state the obvious?