09 08 2016

'Dear Sir, thank you for your tax': HMRC starts to send 'thank you' letters to taxpayers despite keeping them on hold for four million hours

HM Revenue and Customs has started to send thank you letters to members of the public who pay their tax on time, as it emerged that they spent four million hours last year on the telephone waiting for an answer.

The letters are based on an initiative in Australia where taxpayers receive automatic thank you letters acknowledging the tax that has been paid, although accountants in the UK said that not all taxpayers here would welcome the initiative.

Caroline Flint, the former Labour Cabinet minister, raised the issue of 'thank you' letters, as part of annual tax summaries, at a hearing with HMRC officials in front of the Public Accounts Committee in the House of Commons.

Reading from a sample letter sent by Australian Taxation Office to its taxpayers in the country, it said the “Australian government thanks you for your tax contribution” and sets how the tax is spent by the Government.

Ms Flint said: “I am not saying it is going overwhelmingly to make everyone think you are wonderful… but might it not be something acknowledging to the taxpayer how much they contribute, not just where the money goes?

“And a small thank you may be included in future tax summary letters.”

Jon Thompson, HMRC’s new chief executive who replaced his predecessor Dame Lin Homer six weeks ago, replied: “Yes, we will happily have look at that.”

Ruth Owen, HMRC's Director General for Customer Service, said that trials of the 'thank you' letters had started in recent weeks.

Ms Owen said that HMRC had been "testing that with customers now to see what customers think about that”. Results would be available within “weeks”, she said.

Earlier in the hearing, Ms Flint had taken the officials to task for a near collapse in the department’s ability to answer calls on time last year.

A National Audit Office report last month found one in five callers last year – 4.2million people – hung up after waiting on the line for an average of 16 minutes each. Some had to wait up to an answer.

Ms Flint said: “In 2015/16 customers were on hold for four million hours during that period.

"According to a survey of the most streamed pieces of music during that period – number one was ‘Uptown Funk’ by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars and in second place the HMRC holding message.

“We had a little discussion on the committee about what should be on the HMRC play list – here are a few suggestions: ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’, ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ or – my favourite – Debbie Harry’s ‘Hanging On The Telephone’."

Ms Flint asked HMRC for more suggestions about “what they should be listening to during the four million hours that customers on hold”.

Ms Owen said that HMRC does not “want anyone to hear much more music than a couple of minutes from now on – so they may hear a whole track”.

The department had changed its holding music after noticing that it was being criticised by customers on social media, she said.

She added that “we have learned from what went wrong last year and we have put in place a number of monitoring systems” to deal with increases in calls”.

Speaking at the end of the two hour session, Mr Thompson said that the service for taxpayers had been “unacceptable” and pledged that 90 per cent of calls would be answered within five minutes by March next year.

He said: “I am not in denial about this. This period is unacceptable.”

Accountants warned not all taxpayers would welcome a thank you letter.

Anita Monteith,Tax Manager at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, told The Daily Telegraph: "Tax payers already receive an annual tax statement at great time and expense to HMRC.

"To introduce a 'thank you' letter when HMRC Service Standards are declining and people cannot even get through on the phone will be galling to many."