Summary 

Taxpayers and agents increasingly expect and use digital services. A secure online channel would allow them to communicate anytime, anywhere, without relying on postal delays or long phone queues. This aligns with modern service expectations and systems that agents and their clients already use. As part of HMRC’s digital first transformation policy a full secure electronic communication system is needed. 

Detail 

Digital channels (e.g. webchat, secure messaging portals) enable quicker exchange of information compared to letters or phone calls. This reduces turnaround times for resolving issues and improves overall customer experience. HMRC already provides a webchat facility for some taxes, but this is currently only suitable for simple queries. 

Digital communication reduces reliance on paper, postage, and call centre resources. As a result, once implemented, it is likely to be more cost-effective for HMRC, agents and taxpayers, freeing up HMRC resources to deal with more complex cases. 

Digital platforms should provide a clear record of interactions, which would help both HMRC and taxpayers track progress, avoid misunderstandings, and maintain accountability. See our separate recommendations on tracking HMRC progress with processing forms / returns for more on this. 

We would like to see HMRC implement a secure client messaging portal available to both agents and taxpayers. We appreciate that such a portal would require triaging communications to the correct HMRC team but would expect that, once a query has been allocated to a staff member, back and forth communication could take place without having to go through the triage process again. 

As a minimum it would be helpful to have a secure portal to enable the transfer of documents such as letters, supporting documents and relief claims. This could perhaps be via the HMRC app for taxpayers and the agent services account for agents. We have heard from members that post frequently goes astray and a portal would provide an audit trail. It is also important that any digital communication route is not one way. We are aware that HMRC intends to switch to digital letters sent via the HMRC app, however there is currently no digital means of response within the app. Failure to incorporate two-way communication and agent access may lead to lack of engagement by stakeholders.