Extraordinary about turn on helplines’ closure

Barely 24 hours after announcing that HMRC was going to close the self-assessment helpline for six months from April and drastically reduce the availability of the VAT helpline to five days a month the department made a dramatic U-turn reversing the decision entirely.

In a press release HMRC said it was ‘now halting its plans in response to the feedback while it engages with its 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’.

HMRC chief executive Jim Harra said online services would allow HMRC to help more taxpayers and get the most out of every pound of taxpayers’ money by boosting productivity but accepted that ‘the pace of this change needs to match the public appetite for managing their tax affairs online’.

The...