Speaking at his inauguration as president of the Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT), at the ATT’s virtual AGM, David Bradshaw called on the government not to cut HMRC staff levels until HMRC has improved its customer service to frustrated taxpayers and their tax advisers.

Bradshaw’s comments come after an HMRC dashboard recently went live for tax advisers to check current processing times and service levels for post and online requests.

The dashboard vindicated concerns from ATT members by showing significant delays in many areas, for example R40s, VAT group registrations and paper self-assessment registrations. They come at the same time as concerns about planned civil service job cuts, although the government has not yet said where the cuts will be made.