Tax return chaos as HMRC phone lines go down two weeks before self-assessment deadline

The taxman’s phone line went down for more than two hours under the strain of self-assessment queries on Thursday – creating chaos for the stampede of callers. 

His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs posted on the social media website X at lunchtime: ‘Our helplines are currently closed due to a technical issue, which we’re urgently working to resolve.’

HMRC later admitted that lines were closed at 11:40am and only reopened at 2:15pm – leaving many callers during the peak calling hours in limbo for a total of 155 minutes.

But despite admitting it was ‘sorry for the inconvenience’ HMRC did not provide details on the phone meltdown, which comes just over a fortnight before the 31 January deadline for people to file their online self-assessment forms and make payments. After this date they get a £100 fine.

The deadline for paper returns is earlier, on 31 October. 

HMRC would not comment on whether phone lines had collapsed under the weight of too many calls caused by people desperate for help, or if there had been an attempt by hackers to break into the system. 

A spokesperson said: ‘Lines were closed at 11:40am due to a short-lived technical issue, with all helplines reopened by 2:15pm. We know initial demand will be high, so we encourage people to use our digital services where possible.’

Talking on X – formerly known as Twitter – customers were left with no idea what was going on. Bhusan wrote: ‘Unable to reach out HMRC over call and the 31st deadline is looming. Not sure how I can proceed. Please help!!’ 

Another, Greg Martin, wrote: ‘Can’t get logged into the HMRC app. Keeps saying the service is down. Any ideas?’ 

While John McConnor said: ‘To complete my self-assessment I need to log in, but I do not have access to the phone number for verification. Been trying to ring you all day and phones are down.’ 

HMRC replied to John: ‘I’m sorry to hear you haven’t been able to get through on the helpline. You can change the phone number for which you receive the access code to. You have to try logging in as normal…’

String of problems for self-assessment taxpayers  

The helpline failure is just the latest in a string of problems people are facing if they want to speak directly to an expert on the phone for help – rather than be forced to use the internet where they may get unhelpful generic answers to queries.

On Wednesday, Money Mail reported how thousands of customers could face the £100 fine because they are now unable to get a ‘unique taxpayer reference’ (UTR) required to fill in a self-assessment form for six weeks – despite HMRC claiming it usually takes 15 days. 

Because they will not now be able to file before January 31, these taxpayers should automatically face a £100 penalty fine.

In one case, someone was unable to access her tax details for eight months because she could not get her Government Gateway user ID to work properly – and was not given the phone support required to use the service.

Callers have been left waiting on the phone for up to hour before getting through with their enquiries – with some reporting they were cut off once they got through. 

Phone lines went dead on 43,690 customers who waited 70 minutes to reach an adviser in the first 11 months of the financial year ending April 2024, according to the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee.

Robert Salter, a director at tax adviser Blick Rothenberg, says: ‘It is no great surprise that if staff are unable to answer specific tax queries you might suddenly lose phone connection.’

Anyone who misses the January 31 deadline will receive a £100 fine automatically. But even if you end up paying this you will still have time to avoid further penalties and interest charges, which are currently levied at 7.75 per cent a year. 

After three months following the deadline there are additional daily penalties of £10 per day up to a £900 maximum. After six months, there is a further 5 per cent penalty of the tax due – or £300 – whichever is the greater. After 12 months there is another 5 per cent penalty or fine of £300. 

Before the latest phone meltdown HMRC said: ‘Average phone call wait times have gone down by 30 per cent in the past year and achieving further improvement is a priority. 

Millions of customers have already filed their 2024/25 tax return in advance of the deadline. There is a wide range of online help and support on Gov.UK for those who are yet to file.’