You can expect to wait if you want to actually speak to someone at HMRC; according to a report published today by the National Audit Office (NAO).

What does waiting to speak to someone at HMRC look like in numbers?

The NAO’s report shares some interesting figures with us:

• HMRC spent 4.7 million hours answering and handling calls in 2022/2023. This was actually 6% less than in 2019/2020.
• 7 million hours were spent by tax payers or their agents waiting to speak to someone at HMRC in 2022/2023. This is a headline grabbing 798 years! In 2019/2020 this was a more modest collective wait of 365 years.
• Wait time has gone up 21% between 2019/2020 and 2022/2023. From 11:24 minutes to 13:48 minutes.
• HMRC estimate that 72% of the calls it received in 2023/2024 are caused by “failure demand”. By this they mean calls that have been caused by: HMRC mistakes or delays; customer mistakes; customers chasing up progress.
• HMRC plan to reduce their frontline customer service workforce by 14% in 2024/2025.

Even though wait times are going up quite significantly HMRC plans to further reduce their workforce.

Are digital services living up to expectations?

HMRC want to see customers using digital services instead of calling them on the phone. With this in mind they hope to use digital services to make things easy and efficient for customers.

The rising wait times seem to stem in part from this move towards digital services. Customers are simply not moving over as quickly as they would like. The workforce is being reduced; but the call volume is not reducing at the same rate. But it is not all doom and gloom:

• 60% of HMRC’s customer transactions do now take place digitally.
• 83% of people who reply to a survey after using a digital service are “satisfied” or “very satisfied”

We are told in the report that raising awareness may help HMRC direct more people towards resolving their query digitally. On the other hand, for more complex tasks, people still want to actually speak with someone at HMRC.

How does this report affect you?

Are you thinking of doing your tax return for 2024/2025 soon? If so, do you need to call HMRC during that time? Thankfully HMRC did do an about turn on closing their self assessment helpline. But, if you can answer “yes” to those two questions then you may be in for a frustrating wait.

This wait is all the more frustrating for freelancers and small business owners. Often the time spent completing your return and waiting on the phone is eating away at time you could bill.

Add up the time you will spend completing your return and waiting for HMRC. Now work out how much you charge for that amount of time. Or perhaps, what that time would mean to you doing something for yourself?

Sometimes we all feel duty bound to get on with tasks that we know we can do ourselves. It might not cross your mind to pay an accountant to do your tax return and deal with HMRC, if you’re confident doing it yourself. However, think back to that time which you could bill for instead; or spend doing something altogether much more fun!

How do I actually speak with someone at HMRC

HMRC is unsurprisingly quieter at off peak times and their phone lines are mostly open 8am to 6pm. Different departments have different phone numbers but all their contact details can be found on their website. The self assessment contact details can be found here.