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. This gives agents and taxpayers just five days’ warning that the service will end.

HMRC is pulling the plug on the VAT registration helpline beginning Monday, 22 May, and urging taxpayers to use the "Where's my reply" online service instead.

HMRC informed agents in an email that the service would end on 22 May 2024, but it has now confirmed to AccountingWEB that the service is actually ending on Monday. 

As a result of the change, people may have to wait up to 40 working days for a response to their query.

VAT helpline trial

Earlier this year, HMRC temporarily halted the service of a number of VAT phone lines while it caught up with the backlog of mail. 

As a result of this exercise, HMRC was able to clear more than 4,000 additional pieces of post each day on average, getting ahead of the backlog. 

After listening to feedback from stakeholders, HMRC has decided to redeploy advisers from the VAT registration phone helpline to process VAT registration applications full-time.

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 processing of these applications.” 

Taxpayers should not contact HMRC if they have submitted their application within 40 working days of receiving a response. 

It is the taxpayer's and agent's responsibility to email HMRC if they have not received a response within five working days of sending their enquiry to vrs.newregistrations@hmrc.gov.uk. 

Use online tools instead

Over 85% of the calls to HMRC's helpline are from taxpayers seeking an update on their applications, but they can use the "Where's my reply" tool to get an expected response date. 

“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 70 million items sent by post annually at a cost of £40m, HMRC has set in motion a rapid transition to becoming digital by default, requiring submission of P11D forms electronically. 

HMRC has attempted to manage capacity issues by temporarily closing helplines, with the Agent Dedicated Line limited to calls relating to self-assessment late filing penalties and PAYE coding notices.