Recommendation 4

HMRC does not provide an efficient means for taxpayers to communicate digitally with HMRC. In 2022–23, HMRC received 22 million items of correspondence, including physical post and forms and interactive forms. Approximately 70% of this comes in through the post. Postal correspondence, as well as some electronic correspondence, requires scanning, manual entry into HMRC’s systems, or both. In the past HMRC has faced large backlogs in processing its correspondence, clearing only 45.5% in 2021–22 within 15 working days of receipt. HMRC’s performance improved to 76.3% in 2023–24 but was still below its target of 80%. HMRC also posts a lot of correspondence itself, spending £68 million on postage and print costs in 2022–23. HMRC said it has used emails with customers sparingly due to security concerns, but it has made little progress in developing alternative secure ways for customers to share information with it electronically. It acknowledges it is clearly behind many other organisations in providing the ability for customers to securely message HMRC digitally. It says that it envisages customers doing this more through the HMRC App and the Personal Tax Account, and is seeking investment for this development as part of its ‘digital roadmap’. recommendation As part of its digital roadmap, HMRC should prioritise introducing systems for customers to submit files and send secure messages electronically to HMRC. This should enable savings which can be recycled into improving its service.