Only a third of individual taxpayers say that they would describe HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) as \u2018fair and efficient\u2019, according to a new study.<\/p>\n
The statistics come from HMRC\u2019s own data, after the tax authority carried out a satisfaction survey among personal and business users.<\/p>\n
Following recent criticisms over HMRC\u2019s diminishing telephone services in the wake of Making Tax Digital (MTD), just 45 per cent of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) told the tax authority that they would describe its telephone services as \u2018good\u2019.<\/p>\n
Only 43 per cent of individual taxpayers agreed.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, more than half of individual taxpayers and 43 per cent of SMEs added that they thought HMRC did not \u2018have the right systems in place\u2019 to sufficiently prevent taxpayers from making tax return errors which provoke \u2018unnecessary investigations\u2019.<\/p>\n
Experts predict that thousands of taxpayers fall victim to making \u2018honest mistakes\u2019 on their tax returns every year \u2013 which inevitably results in HMRC conducting thousands of investigations.<\/p>\n
Filling out tax returns can be a complex and lengthy process and a tax investigation can be provoked only too easily \u2013 especially when access to HMRC telephone advisers is growing increasingly limited.<\/p>\n