Hundreds of thousands of people are still completing their 20/21 taxes at the moment and while services such as untied are helping people take control of their taxes, there are many reasons that someone needs to be contacting HMRC at this time.
Anyone who has tried to call the self-assessment phone line recently will have found that there are still long waits to get through to an adviser.
Callers are currently having to wait , on average, almost 12.5 minutes for their call to be answered, a minute and a half longer than the same time 12 months ago.
To help our users, we did some research into the best times of day to call. We discovered that it was easier and quicker to talk to an HMRC agent towards the end of the week, particularly on a Thursday morning as soon as the phone lines open at 8am, when the wait time is around four minutes. This compares with over 22 minutes at 4pm on a Monday. Some callers were even having to wait for over an hour some afternoons.
We therefore suggest if you are calling HMRC, do it first thing in the morning, on a Thursday or Friday. Otherwise, you may be on hold for a long time before you can talk to someone. At peak times, we also found that callers were being cut off as the lines were too busy. Phone lines are naturally busier, and wait times are longer on the run up to the tax deadline.
The beginning of the year will always be a busy time for the HMRC phone lines because of the tax deadline, so next year, the earlier you can get your taxes in (and get any queries answered by HMRC), the better!
HMRC’s telephone numbers for self-assessment are:
- Telephone: 0300 200 3310
- From outside UK: +44 161 931 9070
There are also other ways to contact HMRC shown on the HMRC website.
Also, before contacting HMRC, do check the phone opening times as they seem to be shorter than previous years.
How can untied help?
untied does research like this so you don’t have to – letting you make the best use of your time! untied also gives you the tools and information to help you make the tax choices that are best for your circumstances. You can sign up for an untied account on this page.
