HMRC has responded to claims its service for tax advisors and accountants has been ‘lacklustre'.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) and the Association for Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) said in a report in May:

"HMRC has struggled to maintain business-as-usual service levels during the pandemic and cannot improve without resources."

Now, Myrtle Lloyd, director of general customer services at HMRC, has sent a letter to ICAEW saying positive steps have been made over the 2021/22 tax year and will continue to do so over the coming tax year.

In the letter, sent on 27 June, Lloyd said:

"We aim to answer all calls to the agent dedicated line (ADL) within 10 minutes and our data shows that we rarely exceed this.

"We are reviewing the ADL position ahead of a bespoke representative body steering group meeting to discuss this over the next few weeks.

"In terms of our other tax lines, our average call wait times (year-to-date) have fallen by seven minutes between April 2021 to February 2022 and we are continuing to improve these services by recruiting and training extra staff."

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