HMRC has introduced that it’ll pilot a brand new ‘seasonal mannequin’ for its self-assessment helpline in an try to alleviate strain on its telephone strains and prioritise pressing queries.
The initiative, set to run for 3 months from twelfth June 2023, will experiment with directing self-assessment queries from the helpline to HMRC’s digital providers, which embody its on-line steering, digital assistant and webchat.
The overwhelming majority of self-assessment clients use HMRC’s on-line providers, with 97% submitting on-line, the tax authority mentioned.
HMRC has confronted important strain to enhance service ranges in latest months, having downsized its customer support workforce from 25,500 to 19,500 up to now 5 years as a consequence of its push in the direction of digitalisation.
However the contemporary initiative, in keeping with the income physique, will unencumber 350 advisers to reply round 6,600 “pressing” self-assessment calls every day.
“A seasonal helpline will make extra of our skilled advisers accessible the place they’re most wanted in the course of the summer time months,” mentioned Angela MacDonald, deputy CEO and second everlasting secretary at HMRC.
“Our on-line providers, together with the HMRC app, are fast and simple to make use of and have been considerably improved. I urge clients to discover these absolutely earlier than deciding to attend to talk to us on the telephone.”
However in keeping with Seb Maley, CEO at IR35 consultancy agency Qdos, the timing of the brand new pilot scheme is inappropriate and merely “highlights chaos” on the tax workplace.
“We’re in a price of residing disaster, the self-employed are being hit with tax rise after tax rise and as a substitute of accelerating the help accessible, HMRC reduces it.
“HMRC can gown it up nonetheless its needs, however closing the telephone strains for self-employed taxpayers is simply going to lead to issues.”
Maley additionally argues that the transfer runs counter to HMRC pleas earlier this yr for self-employed staff to file and pay their tax payments, calling the plans “illogical”.
In equally vital style, Chris Etherington, personal consumer tax companion at RSM UK argues that the Summer season pilot scheme might pile undue strain onto the telephone strains once they reopen in September.
Based on HMRC, the self-assessment helpline receives far fewer calls over the Summer season, with calls round 50% increased between January and April in contrast with June to August.
However Etherington argues {that a} summer time closure is more likely to worsen the already intensive ready occasions at first and finish of the yr and trigger some taxpayers to face a “bleak winter”.
“The closure might come as an unwelcome shock to many taxpayers and might be a short-sighted transfer. HMRC already struggles to cope with the extent of telephone calls that come via within the winter forward of the 31 January deadline, and this might make the issue worse.”
Taking a extra optimistic stance, Glenn Collins, ACCA UK’s head of technical and strategic engagement, says he’s “happy HMRC is all of the choices to deal with the present poor efficiency”, praising the tax authority for being “versatile and adaptable”
Nonetheless, he goes on to echo Etherington’s views, mentioning the “stress” between HMRC urging taxpayers to file their returns early while closing one of many key mechanisms for this.
“It’s all very properly selecting the bottom demand level to pressure folks onto a platform which many aren’t comfy with, however not in case you’re going to attempt to improve demand by encouraging early submitting on the similar time.
“HMRC won’t be able to successfully measure the change in behaviour, as the choice has been eliminated. What HMRC must be specializing in is the proportion of queries settled in a single interplay, this isn’t at present adequate and the worry is that this will worsen.”
