The Daily Mail reports that taxpayers have voiced concern over the service being offered by HMRC. The claim is that callers are facing hour-long waiting times to get through and letters are going unanswered. Some taxpayers are waiting up to nine months to receive acknowledgement of their correspondence. With taxpayers trying to contact HMRC ahead of the January 31 tax return deadline, many are questioning the tax office’s decision to reduce the service on its helpline. HMRC says it will only take “priority calls,” with everyone else directed to its website. Last year, taxpayers made 1.2m calls to HMRC in the eight weeks leading up to the tax return deadline, with an average of 41,000 calls per day.

BFS Comment:  

We also have recent experience of the problems and delays in communicating with HMRC. One has to ask if their senior management trained alongside those of the Post Office!!