Tax office faces customer service crisis Some taxpayers have been waiting more than three years for answers from HMRC about their finances. Analysis shows that 3,245 taxpayers who sent letters to HMRC's customer service department have been waiting more than a year for their enquiries to be resolved. Of these, more than 500 have faced a delay of more than two years and 18 have been waiting for more than three years for their requests to be formally dealt with and closed. Jim Harra, chief executive of HMRC, this week told MPs on the Treasury Select Committee that the tax office lacks the resources to keep up with demand and the challenge is getting “tougher and tougher.” HMRC has resorted to creating a special taskforce to deal with the substantial backlog of taxpayer correspondence. It has also introduced measures to address rising call waiting times, which now exceed more than 20 minutes on average or more in individual cases.