Tax office backlog delays refunds The tax office has been hit by a backlog that has seen it fail to process refunds worth thousands of pounds, reports the Telegraph, with the paper looking at feedback on the tax authority's own online forum. Taxpayers have been waiting months for rebates that are normally completed within a matter of weeks due to severe delays at HMRC. An HMRC spokesman apologised for the delays and said it was working through a backlog of post that "had built up over the past year". HMRC’s annual report revealed that the average amount of time customers spent on hold on the phone had increased from under seven minutes to more than 12 in the year to March 31. It was also shown that the number of online forms processed within a week of their submission fell from 87.6% to 70.4%. Lucy Frazer, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said HMRC had failed "to get the basics right" in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak and has not been meeting the required standard.