HMRC to close VAT registration helpline in five days time

HMRC has announced today the closure of the VAT registration helpline from Monday, 22 May, giving agents and taxpayers just five days’ warning that the service will end. 

The cord will be pulled on the VAT registration helpline from this coming Monday, 22 May, with taxpayers being advised by HMRC to use the ‘Where’s my reply’ online service instead.

Initially, agents were told in an email from HMRC that the service would close on 22 May 2024, but HMRC has confirmed to that the service is actually ending on Monday. 

The change will mean that people submitting a query could have to wait up to 40 working days for a response.

VAT helpline trial

The closure of this helpline comes after HMRC temporarily halted the service of a number of VAT phone lines for one day a week last year while the tax authority caught up with the backlog of posts. 

HMRC said that this exercise proved successful in getting on top of the backlog, noting that it was able to clear more than 4,000 additional pieces of post each day on average. 

HMRC added that it had taken the decision to redeploy advisers from the VAT registration phone helpline to spending their entire time processing VAT registration applications after listening to feedback from stakeholders.

Announcing the closure of the helpline in an email titled ‘VAT registration - improving our service’, HMRC wrote: “We constantly review our customer service offer to make sure that we prioritise our work in the best possible way to maximise our service offering to our customer groups who need it the most.”

It added: “We recognise that performance across our core service lines still needs some improvement. We’re confident that this approach will help improve our customer service levels by allowing our colleagues to prioritise the processing of these applications.” 

HMRC stated that taxpayers could expect a reply to their application within 40 working days, and those that have submitted within that timeframe should not contact the tax department. 

If taxpayers and agents haven’t received a reply within this timeframe, they will have to email enquiries via vrs.newregistrations@hmrc.gov.uk, and HMRC will respond within five working days. 

Use online tools instead.

HMRC justified the closure by saying that over 85% of the calls to its helpline are from taxpayers seeking an update on the progress of their applications, but they can get an expected response date through using the ‘Where’s my reply’ tool. 

“Our colleagues are spending the majority of their time talking to customers about their submitted applications and – as that information is already available online – we believe this time can be better used by our colleagues to process those applications instead.”

The push for taxpayers and agents to use digital services has fast become a recurring trend, with HMRC outlining its ambitions to be ‘digital by default’ in the  Simplifying and modernising HMRC’s income tax services through the tax administration framework policy paper. 

With the tax department sending around 70 million items by post each year at a cost of £40m, HMRC has set in motion a rapid transition to becoming ‘digital by default’ which has already seen P11D forms having to be submitted digitally. 

HMRC has attempted to manage capacity issues by temporarily closing helplines, with the agent dedicated line currently restricted to calls only relating to self assessment late filing penalties and PAYE coding notices.