Recently published HM Treasury Minutes show that taxpayers’ trust in HMRC is falling. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommended that HMRC should work with taxpayers and their representatives to understand why trust in HMRC is falling and what it can do to quickly address the decline. Furthermore, the PAC recommended that HMRC should publish the concerns it has heard and the actions it is taking to address these, as a first step to improving trust.

HMRC agreed and the recommendation has been implemented. So, what is the plan?

The Plan

HMRC says it recognises five drivers of customer trust, being perceptions of:

• fairness
• competence
• transparency
• reciprocity
• prevalent social norms

HMRC uses its annual customer surveys (most recently 2024), complaints data, and focus groups to understand these perceptions in driving changes in the headline measures for different customer groups. HMRC say it places ‘great value’ on customer feedback.

Alongside good customer service, trust depends on ensuring a fair tax ecosystem by holding to account those that do not pay the correct amount of tax, in addition to other factors such as prevailing trust in government.

The aim is to continue improving levels of trust by being more supportive, creating a level playing field, and ensuring its services and processes are quicker, easier and help more customers to get their taxes right first time.

For example:

• delivering sustained improvements in HMRC’s helpline services
• improving digital services
• updating guidance regarding tax avoidance schemes
• consulting on ways to improve intermediary standards and the benefits good advisers bring to the tax system, counter those that promote avoidance
• reforming the tax administration framework
• making improvements to services for tax advisers, such as improving the Agents Dedicated Line and Services Account, building digital transactional services and web-chat for tax advisers, and introducing a pre-complaint resolution service

HMRC publishes the results of its annual surveys as well as a range of other customer feedback eg; via exercises like public consultation. The Exchequer Secretary has confirmed that HMRC will publish a Transformation Roadmap this summer, including the details of digital services that will mean a better experience for taxpayers.

We await signs that HMRC’s services are improving and whether that lost trust can be returned. We have significant doubts, but remain open minded.