HMRC have been working with professional bodies, tax charities and businesses on an initiative to improve service delivery. The group have looked at a number of different areas to improve HMRC’s service to taxpayers including the launch of a dedicated bereavement services team and help for employers to avoid P35 penalties that they were unaware of.

One of the other measures which began earlier this year was the launch of an email pilot to a select number of agents. The pilot began with an initial batch of 15 agents and was then expanded to a wider group of 200 agents. HMRC reported that up to 15 June 2012, 136 agents returned their consent forms and have been given an email address to send queries to HMRC and that 46 agents sent 150 queries by email.

HMRC have now confirmed that the pilot is to be extended until the end of 2012.