The latest Adjudicator’s report has been published which reflects on HMRC’s performance during the period 1 April 2021-31 March 2022. The report shows a 19 percent fall in complaints about HMRC, although the adjudicator does say that the number of complaints in 2020/21 was “temporarily inflated by large numbers of complaints about the COVID-19 support schemes”. In 2021/22, the adjudicator upheld 32 percent of complaints investigated, which is a return to a similar level before the pandemic.
In past years, the adjudicator has commented on inconsistency of approach and attitude to complaints and learning within HMRC and lack of clear accountability to creating a positive complaint environment at a senior level. According to this year’s report, over the past two to three years this issue has been addressed and HMRC have established an over-all corporate responsibility for complaints.
This year’s report contains seven case studies. Case study six, which was upheld, may be of interest to our members operating in practice as this involved HMRC paying reasonable agent costs. This particular complaint was upheld.