Responding to the announcement that the government will provide HMRC with £51m in new funding for customer service, Caroline Miskin, ICAEW Senior Technical Manager, Digital Taxation, said: “We are pleased that the government has recognised that HMRC is in desperate need of more funding to address poor service performance. While the £51m announced today may not be enough to meet demand, it is a good start.
"Given the need to find and train up staff there will be a lag before any improvements are seen, so any boost to HMRC customer service from this funding is unlikely to be seen until the autumn and service levels may drop in the meantime.
"We fully support HMRC’s move to digitalise the tax system and move more interactions online. The problem continues to be that online services are not comprehensive and don’t always work well. HMRC needs to step up delivery of digital services while maintaining traditional services during the transition.”
ENDS
Contact: ICAEW media office, stephen.froome@icaew.com or 07970 402 073