Tax compliance continues to be a huge burden on the UK’s businesses, the annual survey by the Administrative Burdens Advisory Board (ABAB) has found.
ABAB’s ‘Tell ABAB survey for 2022/23’ received a record 7,500 responses – a significant increase on the average of about 3,000.
Its key finding is that burdens on business remain a ‘significant concern’ and they continue to increase year on year. Specific areas of concern highlighted by the report include the off-payroll working rules, Making Tax Digital, and changes in importing and exporting procedures. Businesses state that they have not yet witnessed the benefits of digitalisation.
It also found that respondents continue to express a strong desire to speak one-to-one with an HMRC adviser. Satisfaction levels on response times for telephone calls remain low, with respondents being dissatisfied with this service for that reason.
When asked whether they would consider interacting with HMRC through alternative channels, such as YouTube, Skype, webchat and text message, 26% said that they would ‘definitely not’ use these channels, with a further 11% answering ‘possibly not’. Only 3% said they would ‘definitely’ use these channels, and 9% said they ‘probably’ would.
However, there was some good news for the tax authority. The survey found that many respondents thought guidance for business was improving. Many praised the clarity of written correspondence and rated the information available via YouTube highly. There are still concerns over a number of HMRC forms, the numbers are relatively low and although there are remaining frustrations with GOV.UK, these are also relatively low. It is notable that the VAT registration form is mentioned for the first time as being problematic.
ABAB will present its annual report covering all of its work for 2023 to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury in December 2023. In that report, it will review HMRC’s progress and performance against the priorities ABAB set in 2022.
