Taxpayers spent 719 HOURS waiting at the HMRC call center last year as waiting times worsened

Taxpayers spent 719 years waiting for HMRC last year, as the average waiting time for a call to speak to an adviser continues to rise.

The average call length has increased 19 percent, from 22 minutes and 41 seconds to 27 minutes and two seconds, according to data for the year to June 30 from accounting firm UHY Hacker Young.

The situation is getting worse: in the last three months the figure increased by 5 percent compared to the previous quarter.

UHY Hacker Young’s research also found that only 42 per cent of calls received were answered by an advisor.

The rest of the calls were forwarded, a busy message was played, or a customer abandoned the call while on hold.

The tax office has come under increased scrutiny in the last year as waiting times to speak to an adviser have soared.

This has only gotten worse as more people enter the tax system.

More people now work multiple jobs, and frozen income thresholds mean some workers now have to pay taxes they previously didn’t earn enough, and many more are being dragged into higher tax brackets.

A rise in interest rates means that more people with modest savings may now also be subject to taxes on their income.

Recent tax office figures also show that more pensioners than ever now pay income tax on their state pension.

The number of people over state pension age paying income tax increased from 7.85 million in 2023/24 to 8.51 million in 2024/25, an increase of 660,000.

At the same time, HMRC has shifted its focus away from telephone services towards digital support.

However, it closed its VAT registration helpline last summer and attempted to close its self-assessment helpline in the summer.

This is what Money heard from several readers who had been affected by the sudden closure of the self-assessment helpline.

We revealed a woman had been fined hundreds of pounds for late tax returns, despite not having been self-employed for four years.

After six months of trying to fix the problem, he tried calling the self-assessment line, only to discover it was closed for the summer.

The Government has said it will crack down on tax evasion to help close the tax gap and

However, UHY Hacker Young says long wait times are also having an impact, making it difficult for people and businesses to resolve issues.

Neela Chauhan, partner at UHY Hacker Young, says: ‘Too often, when the Government talks about increasing HMRC funding, it ends up referring to tax investigations.

‘It is vitally important that HMRC secure additional funding to improve their very poor customer service.

‘Delays in processing customer inquiries also hamper HMRC’s ability to resolve tax issues.

‘This, in turn, reduces the amount of tax HMRC collects. “It is also in HMRC’s best interests to end the customer service crisis.”

An HMRC spokesperson said: ‘These figures are from several months ago, since then the new government has identified improving customer service performance as a key priority for HMRC.

“While the UK already has one of the lowest tax gaps in the world, ministers have committed to reducing it further, and the Chancellor has committed significant additional funding to achieve this.”