Just 17% of agents believe HMRC to be an efficient organisation which does not waste money, while over half gave HMRC a negative rating for efficiency in the department’s own customer survey, which has also revealed there are a number of areas of agent interaction which need improvement
The research, which was conducted in the final quarter of 2015, asked individuals, small businesses and agents a series of questions about tax administration and their customer experience.
The analysis shows that just over a third of the individuals polled felt HMRC were efficient (35%), while about four in ten felt they were fair (38%) or effective (41%). Similarly, one in three small businesses felt HMRC were efficient (33%) and fair (37%), while nearly half (46%) felt they were effective.
In contrast, fewer than half of agents (46%) said they had found it easy to deal with tax issues over the previous 12 months. One in five (22%) reported finding it difficult and a third (32%) were neutral. The survey found those agents who used online services but not the telephone to make or receive contact with HMRC were significantly more positive about the ease of dealing with tax issues than those who had used both online and telephone (72% and 42% respectively).
However, four in ten (43%) agents gave a negative response when asked about HMRC minimising the cost, time and effort of dealing with tax affairs, with a quarter (27%) being neutral and only 28% positive.
Nearly half (46%) of agents suggested HMRC takes too long to reach the end result, while around a quarter gave neutral (28%) and positive (26%) responses. Due to the relatively poor performance and high importance of this measure, the report says this is a high priority area for improvement.
Agents who only dealt with payroll related taxes or benefits were noticeably more positive about the time taken to reach the end result (41%) than those agents who dealt with business or other taxes (25%). Agents who interacted with HMRC via online channels but not the telephone were nearly three times as likely to respond positively (60%) to this statement than those who used the telephone (21%).
Four in ten (39%) agents felt that HMRC were good at resolving queries or issues. This area has also been deemed an important area for HMRC to improve based on its performance against the other measures of experience.
When asked about the ease of finding information from HMRC, a third (35%) of agents reported finding it easy to do so, a quarter (26%) said that it was difficult and 39% were neutral. The report indicates that this area has been identified as a key area for improvement due to its lower performance compared to other experience metrics.
HMRC’s individuals, small businesses and agents customer survey 2015 is here.
