Out of the five groups of people contacting HMRC in 2023-24, accountants and tax agents had the worst experience rating with only 37% satisfied. This had dropped from 45% the previous year. Second worst, mid-sized businesses had a similar rating to last year, increasing by only 1% to 53%.

With agents representing approximately 12m taxpayers and 70% of small businesses, the 37% approval rating is alarming as agents have some of the most complex queries that need to be dealt with by HMRC staff.

Half of all the agents who responded to the annual HMRC Charter service survey said HMRC had ‘made an error’.

There was also a decline in the number of positive ratings for telephone helplines, and this was exacerbated by the fact that fewer agents interacted with HMRC using online only channels (compared to other taxpayer groups) – reflecting the more complex and frequent interactions that agents are having with HMRC.