HMRC has said it has “halted” its proposed changes to its helpline services, barely 24-hours after making the announcement.
It says this is in direct response to the immediate feedback, and now promises to engage with stakeholders about how to ensure all taxpayers’ needs – including small businesses – are met as HMRC shifts more people to online self-service in the longer term.
This means the phone lines for Self Assessement, VAT and PAYE will remain open between April and September, for this year anyway.
HMRC’s CEO Jim Harra admitted that the pace of change in services needs to match the public appetite for managing their tax affairs online,
