Tax boss Harra defends HMRC service levels

3 Feb 2022

In a Treasury Committee hearing into the performance of HMRC, chief executive Jim Harra said that HMRC cannot strive for ‘brilliant services’ without adequate funding and that its current ‘decent service’ level is acceptable

The evidence session, which also featured HMRC’s director general for customer compliance Penny Ciniewicz and deputy chief executive Angela MacDonald, examined the work of HMRC which included the quality of the department’s customer service, the fraud and error rates in Covid-19 support schemes, and the future of Making Tax Digital (MTD).

Harra admitted that one in five calls to HMRC go unanswered, but he did not have the resources to ensure all calls were answered.