Less Than 50% of Tax Specialists Are Satisfied With HMRC

 

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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HMRC Calls Taxpayer "A Fucking Bitch"

HMRC has apologised and paid compensation to a businesswoman who overheard an adviser calling her a “fucking bitch”.

The woman had phoned a tax helpline in March to discuss a possible rebate and when put on hold, she heard the call-handler utter the insult.

When she originally complained she was offered £30 as a goodwill gesture. After demanding a recording of her conversation, she lodged her complaint with the HMRC’s chief executive. HMRC has apologised for the “unacceptable language and paid her tax rebate plus £750 compensation.

So much for HMRC's claim that taxpayers are "customers" (which implies some form of service is being provided)!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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HMRC Ignores 4 Million Calls

HMRC failed to answer 4 million telephone calls last year.

The service has been branded ‘disappointing’ by Meg Hillier, chair of the Public Accounts Committee.

In addition to not answering 4 million calls, 14% of calls took more than 10 minutes before there was an answer.

Meg Hillier, chair of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee, told the Telegraph:

‘There are a lot of people who are self-employed, who do not have a raft of tax advisers and who rely on HMRC for help."

An HMRC spokesman is quoted by Metro:

‘We have improved our customer service standards enormously over the last two years.
Our phone call handling has got better, with the average response time falling from 12 minutes in 2015-16 to below five minutes for the past two years.
Time in the automated telephony system is valuable because it ensures customers are directed to the right person to deal with their question, or get their question answered through the automated system.
The National Audit office last year recognised a large number of organisations use the same measures as HMRC."

In other words, HMRC thinks it is doing well!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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HMRC Customer Satisfaction Falls To 72%

 

Customer satisfaction

We want to achieve an average of 80% customer satisfaction for our digital services across the year.
During January 2017, our average customer satisfaction rate for all digital services was:

72%

Other statistics can be seen here HMRC Monthly Performance Report January 2017

Tax does have to be taxing.

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HMRC's Digital Success

HMRC are loudly proclaiming success as personal tax digital registrations have breached 7.4m (400k) above target.

However, taxpayer satisfaction is at 75% compared to the 80% target.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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PAC Warns HMRC Not To Risk Collapse In Service

PAC has warned HMRC not to risk a “collapse in customer service” (it's not "customers" it's "taxpayers"!) by understaffing its phone lines amid expectations that a digital revamp of its services will produce cost savings.

As per the FT, PAC urged HMRC not to “underestimate the demand for telephone contact” from taxpayers as it attempts to cut the cost of its personal tax services by 34% by 2020-21 to meet spending targets.

The report said the impact of staff cuts had caused taxpayers to spend “some four million hours waiting for HMRC to answer the phone” in the 2015-16 tax year, incurring call charges to its 0300 phone numbers while they were on hold. These numbers cost up to 45p per minute to call from a mobile, and 12p per minute from a landline.

The average time taxpayers spent on hold reached almost 35 minutes in one week in October 2015 — with almost 30 per cent of all calls unanswered last year as callers simply gave up.

“Every £1 saved by HMRC on telephone services over this period [resulted] in an estimated £4 in extra costs to customers.”

In other words HMRC no longer cares about taxpayers, merely its own self interest!

Meg Hillier MP, chair of the PAC, said:

“The prospect of HMRC making further cuts to spending on customer service will chill the blood of many taxpayers.” 

HMRC thinks that PAC is talking bollocks, it said the MPs’ report was an “inaccurate, out-of-date reflection of our phone performance”.

“We acknowledge that service levels in the early part of last year were not acceptable and we apologised at the time.

But the PAC is well aware our phone lines have since fully recovered and we are now offering our best service levels in years. There’s never been a more convenient service for our customers.”

This will end in tears, not only does HMRC have to cut costs and make things digital it also has to fulfil Thompson's idiotic promise to man phone lines seven days a week 8am-8pm!

Good luck, all in all an impossible set of tasks!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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HMRC's Three Legged Stool - Strategy, Service and Compliance

HMRC is to launch yet another restructuring drive, with the theoretical intent of putting the "customer" ("TAXPAYER" FFS!) at the heart of the restructured organisation.

The current four HMRC directorates will be streamlined into three distinct divisions:

From 1 October, the existing four directorates will be reorganised into three groups:

1. a new customer strategy and tax design group, which brings together customer strategy, tax policy, process design and tax assurance teams, led by Jim Harra, director general business tax;
2. an expanded customer service group, which includes the main operational teams, led by Ruth Owen, currently director general customer services;
3. a customer compliance group, which will tackle non-compliance and enforcement for all customer groups, including large businesses, led by Jennie Granger, current director general enforcement and compliance.

Central to the customer strategy and tax design group will be the inclusion of representatives from customer services reorganised. This group will include personal tax customer product and process staff, who will take up their new roles in October, while specialist personal tax teams with expertise in policy, technical, shares and valuation, will come on board by December 2016.

The fourth directorate, headed up by Nick Lodge, covering general benefits and credits will be assimilated into the other three core groups.

Where does Lodge end up, or does HMRC hope he falls on his sword?

HMRC director of corporate communications Stephen Hardwick is quoted by CCH Daily:

"As we have been evolving what we do, and where we do it, as part of this transformation, we have also kept our organisational structure under review, to ensure that it is fit for the future and that it supports our new digital and collaborative ways of working.

As a result, we have now decided to make some further changes to how we are structured. From October, we will be reorganising the directorates in our four existing lines of business into three new groups."

An HMRC spokesperson added:

"The way HMRC works is changing for the better. We are more determined than ever to deliver an outstanding service to our customers while clamping down on the minority of tax dodgers who try to cheat the system.

This announcement is about the next step in driving those commitments forward, modernising how we work.

There will also be no redundancies as a result of this restructure."

This restructuring appears to be driven by the need to make the organisation fit in with the Making Tax Digital process, surely it should be the other way around?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

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Ruth Owen Uses The "C" Word

Ruth Owen, HMRC customer services director, has labelled British taxpayers as “customers”, despite radio presenter John Humphrys pointing out the public has “no choice” but to deal with them.

Good for Humphrys pointing out what has been said many times on this site over the past few years!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

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HMRC's Collapse In Service To Chill The Blood

Our "respected" members of Parliament (specifically PAC) have warned that cuts to HMRC helplines have cost taxpayers £4 for every £1 saved and left taxpayers waiting for an average of 47 minutes for their calls to be answered.

No surprises there then!

The Public Accounts Committee goes on to warn that plans to cut the number of staff at HMRC by a third by 2021 could lead to another “collapse” in customer service and will “chill the blood of many taxpayers”.

Meg Hillier, the chairman of the committee, is quoted by the Telegraph:

"The prospect of HMRC making further cuts to spending on customer service will chill the blood of many taxpayers.

HMRC's recent performance in this area has been appalling for long periods and left members of the public counting the cost in time and money.

It is bad enough that people trying to pay their fair share of tax should have been kept waiting for so long.

But holding for HMRC's helpline has hit them in the pocket too - a serious concern for those on low incomes and a dismal message to send to small businesses, the self-employed and anyone else simply seeking advice.”

Mrs Hillier also said:

"HMRC has serious work to do before this committee is confident it can provide a consistent, efficient service that properly meets the needs of taxpayers and optimises tax revenue.

Efforts to meet government spending targets must not come through ill-conceived measures that effectively penalise the people departments are intended to serve."

An HMRC spokesman said:

"This is an inaccurate, out of date reflection of our phone performance. We acknowledge that service levels in the early part of last year were not acceptable and we apologised at the time.

But the PAC is well aware our phone lines have since fully recovered and we are now offering our best service levels in years. Wait times are now below five minutes and customers consistently rate the support they receive on the phones as excellent.”

Well then, nothing to worry about at all it's all lies then!

I would care to make an observation, it's all very well MPs moaning about HMRC and its service levels (or lack of service levels). However, HMRC's budget is set by the government, tax policy is set by the Chancellor and voted on by Parliament and those who run HMRC are selected/approved of by the Treasury.

Therefore MPs only have themselves to blame for HMRC being shite!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

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Blair Got Advice From Hartnett

As loyal readers know, HMRC is keen to promote its "customer friendly" credentials and is often at pains to point out that taxpayers (sorry "customers") can get in touch with HMRC to discuss their tax queries etc.

Well it seems that HMRC are not kidding, that is at least the case for ex Prime Ministers anyway.

It appears according to reports in the Times that Tony Blair, when he left office, was granted (or at least his advisers were granted) an audience with Dave Hartnett.

For why?

Blair wanted to arrange the most tax efficient structure for some form of offshore trust that would handle his "consultancy" income from various foreign organisations/governments. Reporters were told that Blair uses an interest-in-possession (IIP) trust to receive payments from his consultancy work

Economia reports that MPs are expected to write to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to call for an investigation into “special treatment of high-profile individuals by HMRC”.

The question is, if you or I had asked for an audience with Hartnett would we have received the same treatment that Blair got?

Oh and by the way, re yesterday's article about HMRC's consultation on a new offence aimed at businesses which fail to prevent tax evasion.

Will that apply to HMRC as well?


Tax does have to be taxing.

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Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

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What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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HMRC Grips The Issue - Don't Believe The Hype!

A spokesman for HMRC is quoted by International Adviser, talking about the closure of HMRC offices and HMRC's "improved" performance:

“We recognise our customer service has not been good enough recently and apologise to all those who have found it difficult to talk to us. 

We have gripped this issue and recruited around 3,000 new staff in our customer teams, also moving an extra 900 HMRC people on to customer correspondence in recent months.

These improvements have started to make a difference. This month, we have answered more than 80% of calls, and average queue times are now around 10 minutes.”

Well that's all very fine and dandy, except that it's bollocks.

The reality is, as a loyal reader pointed out to me, that of course performance has improved in November that's because November and December are quiet months.

Wait until January, then we will see how HMRC copes!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

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What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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HMRC Loses a Customer

A particularly rude opening letter from HMRC - and wrong because tax paid weeks ago. Well they just lost a customer. pic.twitter.com/kqXqtkSAOd

— Ken Tindell (@kentindell) July 18, 2015

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

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To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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HMRC Throws £45M At Taxpayer Service Issues

I see that HMRC has promised to throw £45M at its customer service problems, specifically call handling problems, in the hope that the issues can be fixed.

Seemingly around 3,000 additional staff will join customer service teams, in addition to 2,000 staff who are being moved over from other parts of HMRC to help with the tax credits deadlines, letters and forms.

Lin Homer is quoted by Accountancy Age:

"Good customer service is an absolute priority for HMRC. We set ourselves the target to answer 80% of calls, to provide a more consistent level of service across the year and to reduce peaks and troughs in service levels between busy and quieter times."

All very well, maybe. However, two small points:

1 The £45M is not extra money, it is money taken from other parts of HMRC's budget.

2 FFS stop calling taxpayers "customers", address that issue first!


Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

HMRC Takes 54 Minutes To Answer The Phone

HMRC’s call handling rate has taken a turn for the worse, 37.9 % of calls were answered within its five minute target between July and September last year, compared with 42.4% during the same period in 2013.

The Sunday Mirror was told by insider that HMRC is in “meltdown” as it struggles to cope with a spike in phone calls and a huge backlog of unopened post; none of this will be a surprise to loyal readers.

However, to test response times the Sunday Mirror made 20 calls to HMRC's key helplines at various times throughout the day to see how long it took them to answer.

One call to its self assessment tax line took 54 minutes and 34 seconds to be answered. A second to the same helpline was cut off after five minutes and 51 seconds.

Another call to HMRC’s tax credit helpline was finally answered after 45 minutes and 40 seconds while the helpline handling self-employment income tax inquiries took 35 minutes and eight seconds.

As noted, none of this will come as a surprise to loyal readers.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

HMRC Fixes Postal Problems

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted the following comment, wrt a message posted by Dorothy Brown (PT Operations Director) to HMRC staff yesterday:

"More rearranging of the deck chairs, this is a message put out by Dotty Brown today:

As part of my commitment to keep you regularly updated, I wanted to let you know about our latest preparations to get HMRC ready for the new tax year.

As you know, for most of this year we've prioritised work on phones to ensure we're there for customers calling us for advice and support. With the new tax year just around the corner, we are joining up with other business lines over the next few weeks so that we start 2015-16 in the best position across all of our work - phones, ‎post and work management.

In the next few days, around 400 colleagues from Enforcement and Compliance (E&C) will start to work with us to allow more of our people to concentrate on post and work management. Those in Local Compliance and Debt Management and Banking from East Kilbride, Edinburgh, Livingston and Newcastle will be helping to support HMRC customers while staying in their own business lines. I'm grateful for the speed at which E&C colleagues have responded to meet customer needs, particularly during such a busy time.

This is all part of HMRC's approach to working flexibly to support our customers where and when they need us, as we have done in the July and January peaks. I'm sure you will support these colleagues as you have during other peaks of work over the past year, and I'll keep you all updated as this work progresses.

Dorothy."

How nice to see that HMRC is so responsive to the issues (ie Postal Delays) raised on this site!

Thus we can be assuaged that the postal problems are now solved!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

The Reality of HMRC's Needs Enhanced Services

My thanks to a loyal reader who posted a brief outline of how HMRC's face to face meetings (aka Needs Enhanced Services) for elderly/infirm taxpayers actually work in reality.

It seems to be a very hit or miss affair, with the hapless taxpayer left standing around until someone spots him/her:

"Needs Enhanced Services. 

It works like this: Tax payer outside in the cold until a member of staff exiting or entering the building spots them, usually it's not too long before a smoker goes in or out. 

Staff member then has to decide if they meet NES ie are elderly or infirm. 

Staff member then has to leave t/p outside and go upstairs to grab one of the staff members seeing NES customers, they then come down and take the t/p into a private room."

This appears to be a very haphazard and amateurish way to treat people, especially given that they are elderly/infirm.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Abysmal

A survey conducted by the ICAEW has found that around 33% of accountants who responded are of the view that the service provided by HMRC has deteriorated over the least year.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed said that HMRC staff were unable to do things correctly first time. Tax agents also said it took too long to answer the post or pick up the phone.

Paul Aplin, tax partner of AC Mole & Sons, is quoted in the FT:

“My worry is that poor telephone service will impact on people’s willingness to pay tax.

You can do more with less up to a point but I simply do not believe that the decline in service standards is unrelated to 10 years of cuts.”

Martin Bryars of Bryars & Co, described HMRC telephone service as “abysmal”. He said he had been automatically cut off after holding on for 30 minutes last Tuesday. The service was “very frustrating and costly in terms of time” and had worsened over the past two or three years.

HMRC said:

“We are working hard to further improve our handling of customer calls and have moved up to 1,500 extra people on to the phones during January as the self-assessment deadline approaches.”

HMRC believes that the future lies online; costs and errors will be reduced by moving services online (eg tax forms will be pre-populated with taxpayers' employment information).

This may improve some aspects of the communication flows between some taxpayers and HMRC. However, not all taxpayers are tax savvy nor do they all have access to the internet.

Robin Williamson of the Low Income Tax Reform Group said:

“The digital strategy is not going to succeed in the short to medium term unless digital speeds increase.” 

We shall see.

As loyal readers have noted in the past, if the underlying systems within HMRC (eg desktops and basic operating systems etc) are out of date and don't communicate with each other then there will continue to be problems.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

HMRC's New Twitter Account

I see HMRC is using the "C" word again!

HMRC have a twitter account called @HMRCcustomers what an oxymoron
— Elaine Clark (@cheapaccounting) November 17, 2014

Here is a link to the timetable for HMRC's Twitter Clinics.

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

Taxpayers Are Not Customers!

My thanks to a loyal reader who sent me an article that contains a most marvellous quote by judge Barbara Mosedale, who found that HMRC’s decision wrt taxpayers filing VAT returns online was a breach of the appellants’ human rights and unlawful under EU law.

The judge is quoted by Finance and Tax Tribunals:

"I note in passing that all the reports mentioned below refer to HMRC’s ‘customers’. 

While this is a regrettable misuse of language by HMRC as it implies people have a choice whether to interact with HMRC and that therefore the payment of taxes is voluntary, nevertheless it is clear that references to ‘customers’ are meant to be references to taxpayers. 

Needless to say the payment of taxes is not voluntary despite the misnomer and the submission of VAT returns by VAT registered entities is a legal requirement."

Quite so!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"

HMRC's Customer Service

HMRC recently published its half yearly briefing entitled "How are we doing? HMRC's April to June 2013 performance".

It blames less than stellar customer service levels (we are not "customers"!) on the extra work caused by RTI.

That being said HMRC brought in an extra £4BN in tax revenue over the quarter. However, HMRC handled 77.6 % of all contact centre call attempts during the period (its target being 90%!). This sub par performance was blamed on:

- "technology related issues"
- putting more people on employer helplines during the introduction of RTI

HMRC has delayed the introduction of new automated speech features on phone lines which it originally planned to bring in at this time, so it could answer more calls. These are now being trialled and will be rolled out later in the year.

Suffice to say, with the reallocation of staff to call centres, HMRC's post handling has suffered only 70.3% of it mail has been cleared with 15 days (its target being 80%).

Much like a balloon, if you squeeze one part of HMRC another part will pop!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



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"