HMRC is in the firing line of the PAC again this week. Previously, the public watchdog has criticised HMRC for cutting services, such as its tax and VAT helplines. Now, it has ramped up its narrative - with an accusation that HMRC is running a “deliberately poor” phone service in an effort to force taxpayers to use its online solutions instead. The scathing allegation comes in the wake of a report by a committee of MPs found that nearly 44,000 people were disconnected (and not called back) whilst being on hold for more than an hour in the 2023/24 tax year.

There is certainly no denying that HMRC is keen to make taxpayers aware of its online help options, such as its online chat bot. However, these are unlikely to be of use for anything but the simplest of questions. We're aware of one person who tried to use it to resolve a capital allowances query and was directed to information about child benefit!

Jim Harra, chief executive, denied that HMRC was using such a tactic, pointing to falling call wait times as evidence of improved customer service over the last year.