HMRC has launched a new dashboard that shows the current time being taken to deal with a range of matters, that shows delays of up to nine months in some cases.

The dashboard is designed to give taxpayers and agents accurate information around HMRC’s performance, and shows whether its responses are within the Service Level Agreements, or not.

The dashboard lists the different areas within HMRC, shows whether responses targets are being met, and the anticipated time to deal with an enquiry, if the target service time isn’t being met.

It includes links to provide feedback and will be updated on a weekly basis. Links to HMRC’s quarterly performance updates and monthly reports are included, but these currently date back to February.

• Self Assessment Tax Refunds are taking 56 days to be processed, compared to the usual 15 days. Postal claims are being handled slightly faster, with the current work dating back to ‘only’ the 16th May, rather than the 5th May for online claims.

• HMRC says that it aims to ‘return to normal service of 15 days by October 2022. This date is an estimate and may change. We are sorry for the delay.’

• Marriage allowance claims are taking three times longer than usual for processing.

• Refund claims for income tax deducted from savings and investments, categorised as R40 submissions, are amongst the worst hit. HMRC are currently handling claim requests from the 25th August 2021, nearly a year ago. They are hoping to get back to the usual 15 day turnaround by November 2022.

• P87 payments submitted by post are taking nearly eight weeks for processing, but online claims are being processed within 15 days. This is particularly relevant after the pandemic as it is the method used by employees to claim tax relief for work expenses.

• Online claims for repayment of tax from an employment or pension are taking longer than paper claims, and the usual 15 day service is not expected to recover until October.

Whilst there are exceptions, the lesson is to use digital services as much as possible, as it reduces the need for human intervention to a minimum. This is why R40 refunds are so badly hit, as they are primarily paper based.

If you’re waiting for any form of response, or just want to have a look out of interest, you can see the HMRC dashboard here.

If you’d like to discuss any aspect of your tax affairs, please do get in touch as we’d be very happy to help if we can, but please be aware that there is, sadly, no inside line for agents and accountants! We have to join the same telephone queues as taxpayers to get any updates on progress.