Taxpayers spent over 719 YEARS on cellphone to HMRC

Taxpayers spent 719 years on hold to HMRC in the past year as the average call waiting time to speak to an adviser continues to rise.

The average call length has increased 19 per cent, from 22 minutes and 41 seconds to 27 minutes and two seconds, data in the year to 30 June from accountancy firm UHY Hacker Young found.

The situation is worsening – in the past three months, the figure increased 5 per cent from the previous quarter.

UHY Hacker Young’s research also found only 42 per cent of calls received were handled by an adviser.

Taxpayers are waiting even longer to speak to an HMRC adviser, according to an accountancy firm

The rest of the calls were deflected, played a busy message or saw a customer abandon the call whilst on hold.

The tax office has come under increased scrutiny in the last year as waiting times to speak with an adviser have skyrocketed.

This has only worsened as more people are brought into the tax system.

More people now work multiple jobs, and frozen income thresholds mean that some workers are now having to pay tax who didn’t previously earn enough, and more are being dragged into the higher tax brackets.

An increase in interest rates means that more individuals with modest savings may also now become liable to tax on their income.

Recent figures from the tax office also show that more pensioners than ever are now paying income tax on their state pension.

The number of people over state pension age paying income tax rose from 7.85million in 2023/24 to 8.51million in 2024/25 – an increase of 660,000.

At the same time, HMRC has shifted its focus away from phone services and towards digital support.

However, it shuttered its VAT registration helpline last summer and trialled a summer closure of its self-assessment helpline.

This is Money heard from a number of readers who had been affected by the sudden closure of the self-assessment helpline.

We revealed one woman had been hit with fines worth hundreds of pounds for late tax returns, despite not being self-employed for four years.

After six months of trying to sort out the issue, she tried to call the self-assessment line, only to find out it was closed for the summer.

The Government have said that they will crack down on tax avoidance to help close the tax gap and

However, UHY Hacker Young says that long waiting times are also having an impact, making it more difficult for individuals and businesses to resolve issues.

Neela Chauhan, partner at UHY Hacker Young, says: ‘Too frequently, when the Government talks about increasing HMRC funding, it ends up being for tax investigations. 

‘It’s vitally important that HMRC gets extra funding to improving its very poor customer service.

‘Delays in processing customer queries also hinder HMRC’s ability to resolve tax issues. 

‘This in turn reduces the amount of tax HMRC collects. It is also in HMRC’s best interest to end the customer service crisis.’

A spokesman for HMRC said: ‘These figures are from several months ago, since when the new government has identified improving customer service performance as a key priority for HMRC.

‘While the UK already has one of the lowest tax gaps reported in the world, ministers are committed to reducing it further, and the Chancellor has committed significant additional funding to achieve this.’