HMRC to close self-assessment helpline in ‘seasonal trial’

The IRS is closing another of its crucial phone helplines next week — a move it says frees up staff to help callers with urgent questions.

For three months from 12 June, HMRC will be piloting funneling self-assessment questions from the helpline to the department’s digital services, including the online guidance, digital assistant and web chat.

It says it will help 350 advisors answer urgent calls on other lines and answer customer questions.

However, one accountant says it proves HMRC ‘is not fit for purpose’, while another says it ‘does nothing more than expose chaos in the tax office’.

HMRC said it was testing a ‘seasonal model’ as the helpline receives fewer calls in the summer and about two-thirds of all self-assessment calls can be resolved online.

“We are constantly reviewing our services to see how they can best serve the public and we are taking steps to improve them,” said Angela MacDonald, Deputy Managing Director and Second Permanent Secretary at HMRC.

‘Our online services, including the HMRC app, are fast, easy to use and significantly improved. I urge customers to fully explore these before deciding to wait to speak to us on the phone.”

However, the move will offer little comfort to the thousands of entrepreneurs and accountants who have struggled to get through to HMRC in recent months.

Last month, HMRC closed its VAT registration helpline, forcing business owners to wait up to 40 days to hear from the tax authorities.

The helpline, a subsidiary of the main VAT helpline, was designed to help entrepreneurs and accountants with questions about their VAT registration.

The IRS said 85 per cent of calls came from customers wanting an update to their applications, and business owners can use HMRC’s online tool instead.

Heather Rogers, founder and owner of Aston Accountancy, and This is Money tax columnist said: ‘HMRC is no longer fit for purpose.

“If taxpayers have concerns about their business, or about any correspondence they’ve received, especially if they think it’s wrong, they want to talk to a person and not be fobbed off with a digital chatbot.

‘I note that HMRC wants to transfer advisers to deal with correspondence, which they must do as we await replies to letters older than 12 months.

“However, all of this will frustrate the taxpayer and further add to the mountain of correspondence HMRC has to deal with as clients turn to paper to try and solve their problem.”

This week we revealed that a business owner had waited more than four months for his VAT number and lost a third of his income as a result.

Despite HMRC’s pivot to online, business owners are still required to receive confirmation of their VAT application by post, rather than through the secure online system.

The decision to also close the Self-Assessment Helpline has drawn criticism from accountants.

“This only highlights the chaos at the tax authorities,” said Seb Maley, CEO of Qdos, a tax insurance company for the self-employed.

“HMRC can dress it up however it likes, but closing the phone lines to self-employed taxpayers is only going to cause problems.

“We are in a cost of living crisis, the self-employed are being hit with tax increase after tax increase and instead of increasing the support available, HMRC is reducing it. ‘

Chris Etherington, tax partner for private clients at RSM UK warns that closing the self-assessment helpline would only add to HMRC’s problems once the process is over on 4 September.

HMRC is already struggling with the number of calls coming in during the winter before the 31 January deadline, and this could exacerbate the problem.

If taxpayers don’t get their questions answered during the summer months, they may be able to postpone them until later in the year and then put even more pressure on the phone lines.

“A harsh winter could await taxpayers with even longer waiting times.”