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AIA

How good is your support?

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14th Dec 2011
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The weeks leading up to the 31 January Self Assessment filing deadline are the most stressful of the year for most tax practitioners, and the same is true for both the software suppliers who support them and HMRC.

There is a simple measure for this in the sheer volume of calls that start coming into HMRC and software service centres. Hours are extended, extra staff are laid on and managers keep a beady eye on the time it takes to answer and resolve calls.

Well, we’re looking to monitor how the Self Assessment rush is being handled too - and we’re asking for your help. Please take part in our quick customer support survey to help us collect data from the front line about your experiences. Thanks to sponsorship from TaxCalc, one of our respondents will win an iPad 2.

HMRC’s call centre performance has been unfavourably compared to the private sector by the NAO and in many cases, people using commercial software will ask their supplier for help with tax issues rather than trusting their chances to the official helpline. Our survey will put this theory to the test by seeking feedback both from customers of commercial suppliers and from users of HMRC’s helplines for taxpayers and agents.

Up to date results will be reported in AccountingWEB’s Self Assessment Zone during January and we will publish detailed findings after 31 January.

Please complete the survey now - you could win an iPad 2.

Replies (2)

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ghm
By TaxTeddy
14th Dec 2011 13:35

Beat me to it.........

About a week ago I had a problem filing a 2010 tax return using TaxCalc - very unusual. I copied the error message to the TaxCalc support team on an email and had an instant response - it was caused by HMRC system changes (no surprise there) and TaxCalc techies had just fixed it.

Now THAT's support.

Thanks (1)
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By Tri622
15th Dec 2011 14:13

BTC Software

I orginally started off using the Inland Revenue's online software for self assessment tax returns and corporation tax returns.  After a couple of years I changed my accounting software and thought I'd try BTC for the tax.  I was getting fed up with having to wait weeks for the online support people to ring me back from the Inland Revenue.  I have never looked back since.  The support that they give their customers is excellent, with them sorting queries out very very quickly.  Most of the time its not the software its the user but they don't mind at all helping with this as well!!

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