Digital revolution at HMRC left 99,000 UK taxpayers on hold over five-day fiasco
Poor IT performance caused a five-day shutdown of the UK tax authority's phone services in December last year, affecting around 99,000 citizens.
According to the annual report for His Majesty's Revenue & Customs , during the 2022-2023 tax year, the government department's customer service was adversely affected by IT problems, particularly towards the end of 2022. "Between 1 and 5 December 2022, HMRC closed all of its telephone-based services due to poor call quality and the inability of advisers to access relevant information. Webchat was also unavailable at this time," official government auditors said inThe department estimated it would have handled around 99,000 calls from taxpayers at the time the telephone services were suspended. The specific cause was not revealed.
HMRC is in the middle of its Making Tax Digital transformation program, which kicked off in 2015. This is designed to"modernise HMRC's separate IT systems for three business taxes – VAT, Income Tax Self Assessment and Corporation Tax – and require business taxpayers to keep and submit quarterly digital tax records."that the initial time frame for the program was unrealistic and has since faced repeated delays and rephasing, undermining its credibility and increasing costs.
The tax agency said in the report that its Technology Sourcing Programme had achieved £11 million of efficiency savings in 2022-2023 – less than 1 percent of its lifetime budget of £7.1 billion –"by replacing existing IT contracts with new, more efficient services and suppliers."
Belgique Dernières Nouvelles, Belgique Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
HMRC Tax Credits warning ahead of July 31 renewal deadline - what you must doMore than 170,000 tax credit recipients are being warned they have just one week to act or risk having their payments stopped.
Lire la suite »
One million families urged to claim £2,000 annual tax-free childcare from HMRCWorking families with children up to the age of 11 can save up to £500 on childcare costs every three months.
Lire la suite »
Why is technology not making us more productive?We are in the midst of a technological revolution, but productivity has not improved.
Lire la suite »
AI: Kelly Jones criticises technology in songwritingThe Stereophonics frontman said he believes 'art should come from people'.
Lire la suite »
HMP Risley told to improve as inspectors find myriad of problemsHMP Risley has high levels of self-harm and keeps inmates in poor conditions, inspectors say.
Lire la suite »
Musk Says Twitter Could Change Logo to 'X' SoonElon Musk said Sunday that he plans to change the logo of Twitter to an “X” from the bird
Lire la suite »