According to its own measures, HMRC is still failing to provide consistently good quality customer service in the eyes of those who have dealings with it, with agents in particular disappointed at the support they receive under the Your Charter initiative.
The tax authority's second Your Charter annual report and summary outlines the progress towards improving the relationship between HMRC and its different customer groups over the past 15 months, based on nine rights such as respect, even-handed treatment, and being treated as honest. It includes a survey asking customers to rate its performance against the charter.
In the Charter's report, ICAEW tax faculty technical manager and charter advisory committee chair, Ian Young, said that there have been some improvements in the survey results between March 2012 and 2013.
'It is, however, disappointing that agents, who have the most contact and interaction with HMRC, have consistently scored HMRC much lower than the other survey participants, namely individuals and small and medium sized businesses.'
'There is still considerable work to be done before we can be sure that Your Charter is at the core of how HMRC does business and how it delivers the high level of service standards and support that taxpayers can reasonably expect,' Young added.
The survey results show that the proportion of agents who think it is easy to get all the information they need has gone up from 63% in March 2012 to 67% in March 2013, but Young says this is still well below the 81% of SMEs and 78% of individuals who currently think this is the case.
Similarly, nearly two thirds of SMEs (65%) and 62% of individuals now think HMRC treats individuals as being honest, compared to under half (46%) of agents. Although most (83%) of individuals say they trust HMRC to be fair, this drops to 67% of SMEs and only 58% of agents.
Only just over half (56%) of agents agree HMRC can be relied upon to carry out its duties properly and professionally, compared to three quarters (75%) of SMEs and 73% of individuals. Significantly, just 39% of agents say HMRC can be relied upon to look after customer's interests compared to 60% of SMEs and 62% of individuals.
Young said that SME customers are the most positive of overall performance, with tax agents being the least positive - despite seeing recent improvements in agent scores relating to six of the charter commitments, and working hard with agents to build on this progress.
'The survey has also helped us identify that customers feel we have more to do on being even-handed and reducing their costs, and we will be looking for ways to improve these areas during 2013-14,' said Young.
According to the report, the overall priorities for improving service delivery during the current year include making it easier to get in touch (whether by phone, post or online); improving the service provided by customer-facing staff; ensuring HMRC communications are understandable; and introducing certainty about when a matter is concluded.
