President of CIOT Susan Ball has written to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss setting out three priorities for the tax system which the new prime minister needs to prioritise, including poor performance levels at HMRC.

Currently, HMRC’s performance standards are well below expections and need to be improved if HMRC is to play its essential role in supporting taxpayers and businesses, according to the letter.

The PM should maintain HMRC’s existing resources and capabilities, and improve standards of basic performance across all parts of the organisation. This includes dealing promptly with correspondence and queries, alongside faster processing of new tax registrations.

Ball said: ‘The investment required to sustain these improvements is urgent and essential, not just for taxpayers but for the sustainability of future government revenues, so should not be put at risk by any new wider public spending cuts or constraints.’

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