This should be for a limited time during the peak filing period although the sudden change of plan just over a week since the closure of the public helpline was confirmed, raises concerns about how safe any of the phone services are, even the agent dedicated line (ADL).

In an email to accountants and agents today, HMRC stated: ‘We previously said we would deal with calls relating to self assessment filing, payments and repayments for the 2022 to 2023 tax year.

‘However, due to exceptional levels of demand, we will be directing all ADL progress chasing queries for SA repayments to our digital 'Where’s my reply' tool from Friday 22 December 2023. Using this tool agents will be able to see an estimated date for the processing of an SA repayment.

‘Similarly, from 22 December 2023 our advisers on the ADL will not take progress chasing calls or webchats for SA repayments and will refer agents to the online tools available.’

This means that the majority of high demand phone services will not be available for at least seven weeks.

HMRC is telling agents to use online services and webchat to resolve any queries.

‘We would also like to ask agents for their support at what is understandably a busy time of year and ask them to not use multiple contact channels when trying to contact us; for example, please do not call us and use our webchat at the same time for the same query as this is creating additional and needless demand for our services,’ added HMRC. 

The announcement follows the confirmation of changes to the self assessment (SA) helpline and ADL which will be in place between 11 December 2023 and 31 January 2024.

‘During this time we are prioritising our available resource on the ADL to support the SA peak and will be redirecting agents to use online tools for simple queries wherever possible,’ HMRC stressed. 

Note also that the ADL service will not handle any PAYE calls until February.

PAYE webchat is available from 8am to 6pm Monday to Friday.

There is also a generic page, Check when you can expect a reply from HMRC, with information about how long it takes HMRC to process documents and requests which is available here