If you have an agent dealing with PAYE or Self Assessment queries, good news is coming your way.
HMRC has announced a brand new escalation service for unresolved queries — perfect for when the Agent Dedicated Line or Webchat just aren’t cutting it.
📞 HMRC promises a response within 48 hours, updates every 5 working days, and aims to resolve within 20 working days.
🙌 A great step towards more support for agents doing the heavy lifting in tax season!
We recognise the valuable role that agents play in the smooth running of the tax system. We are constantly listening to your feedback and looking for ways of improving our service.
Yesterday, James Murray, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (XST), announced at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales – Chartered Institute of Taxation (ICAEW – CIOT) conference that we’d be introducing a new service for agents on 31 March 2025, to help escalate and resolve PAYE and Self Assessment queries.
What the service will offer
The new service will focus on PAYE and Self Assessment queries that our Agent Dedicated Line or Agent Webchat haven’t resolved.
Before you can use the service you must have:
- Checked ‘Where’s my Reply’ tool, with at least 20 working days having passed from the reply date given by the tool, and
- Tried at least twice to resolve the query by contacting the Agent Dedicated Line or Agent Webchat
How to contact the service
You can contact the service by emailing our dedicated mailbox, which can be found on GOV.UK from 31 March 2025.
In response, we’ll:
- Contact you within 48 hours to acknowledge the query
- Provide an update every 5 working days by telephony
- Aim to resolve your query within 20 working days, or make an action plan if we can’t
How you can help
To help us resolve queries within the set time frame, please:
- Provide all relevant information and documentation that we ask for to help us resolve the query
- Respond promptly if we ask for clarification, or more information
- Don’t chase a query before the 20 working days have passed
- Don’t use this service to chase repayments, chase postal delays, or queries relating to Making Tax Digital
Your feedback is important to us
We’ll review and improve the new service regularly to make sure we’re meeting agents’ needs. So it’s important you give us your feedback once we’ve resolved a query.
We’re grateful for the continued support of agent representative bodies, in helping to shape our services to meet the needs of their members. Once the service is in place, we’ll look at expanding it beyond PAYE and Self Assessment queries.
Yours faithfully
HM Revenue and Customs
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