Corporate report

HMRC performance data 2026 to 2027: quarter 1

Published 13 August 2026

Our priorities are to close the tax gap, improve day to day performance and the overall customer experience and modernise tax and customs administration. These are enshrined in our departmental strategic objectives, which you can read about in our latest annual reports and accounts published by HMRC. 

This publication shows how we are performing against our key performance measures within each strategic objective. Some measures are updated each month, others each quarter.  

1. Close the tax gap

Our lead measures for this priority are the tax gap and compliance yield. In 2024 to 2025, the tax gap was:

6.4%

The absolute value was £59.2 billion. The tax gap is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. For the latest tax gap statistics, please see Measuring tax gaps 2026 edition: tax gap estimates for 2024 to 2025. 

The compliance yield we brought in during quarter 1 was:

£8.3 billion

1.1 Our compliance work 

Each year, we collect and protect billions of pounds of revenue that would have been lost to the Exchequer without our interventions. Our compliance work helps to keep the tax gap low.  

Compliance yield

Time period	Compliance yield (£ million)
Q1	8,309
Year to date	8,309
Target	50,900

Compliance yield breakdown (£ million)

Time period	Cash expected	Revenue loss prevented	Future revenue benefit	Upstream product and process yield	Upstream operational yield
Q1	1,846	2,105	4,029	0	329
Year to date	1,846	2,105	4,029	0	329

Tackling fraud

Time period	Positive charging decisions	Prosecutions	Closed criminal investigations	Success rate at court	Recovered proceeds of crime (£ million)
Q1	82	63	183	98.4%	32
Year to date	82	63	183	98.4%	32

Criminal sentences

Time period	Criminal sentences — custodial (years)	Criminal sentences — suspended (years)
Q1	147.0	27.0
Year to date	147.0	27.0

1.2 Debt 

We want to collect more of the tax that is due, whilst supporting customers who are in financial difficulty to manage their way out of debt with our flexible Time to Pay arrangements. The measures below show the trends on various debt measures. Our lead metric for debt is the tax debt balance as a proportion of tax receipts, which we report annually in HMRC’s annual report and accounts. 

Debt balance

Time period	Debt balance (£ million)	— of which: managed debt (£ million)	— of which: debt available for pursuit (£ million)
Q1	42,765	6,476	36,288

New and resolved debt, and time to pay

Time period	New debt (£ million)	Debt resolved (£ million)	Customers in time to pay arrangements
Q1	27,628	32,407	874,180
Year to date	27,628	32,407	874,180

1.3 Reviews and litigation 

We know there will be occasions where customers disagree with us on the amount of tax that is due. We seek to resolve any dispute as quickly and cost-effectively as possible, in accordance with the law, using our Litigation and Settlement Strategy and our Code of Governance for resolving tax disputes. 

Dispute resolution

Time period	HMRC reviews concluded (related to automated penalties)	— of which: decisions upheld	Upheld rate	HMRC reviews concluded (all other matters)	— of which: decisions upheld	Upheld rate
Q1	30,307	8,139	26.9%	1,736	1,210	69.7%
Year to date	30,307	8,139	26.9%	1,736	1,210	69.7%

Litigation

Time period	HMRC litigation court and tribunal decisions [note 1]	— of which: litigation win	— of which: litigation part win	— of which: litigation loss	Litigation success rate [note 2]
Q1	461	408	41	12	91.1%
Year to date	461	408	41	12	91.1%

Note 1: Not all litigation cases are finalised through a court judgment. Some are resolved through mutual agreement between the parties involved, without the need for a formal ruling. As a result, the overall volume of cases is higher than the court and tribunal outcomes reported here. 

Note 2: In 2025 to 2026, we successfully applied to the court to have thousands of appeals relating to one avoidance scheme struck off. We have not included those appeals that continue into 2026 to 2027 in this table, to avoid our litigation performance being unfairly inflated.

2. Improve day-to-day performance and the overall customer experience — monthly and quarterly measures 

Our lead metrics for this priority are the proportion of customer interactions using automated or digital self-serve channels and the customer satisfaction score.  

Our overall customer satisfaction score, between April and June, was:

78.6%

2.1 Digital channel adoption 

Our digital-first customer service strategy aims to enable as many customers as possible to self-serve online. This frees up our advisers to support those customers who will need to contact us by phone or post — for example, those who are vulnerable, those who struggle to get online or those who have complex queries.

Our digital performance data for April, May and June 2026 is undergoing final quality assurance checks, and we intend to provide updated digital performance data in September.

2.2 Customer experience measures — phone, webchat and digital services

We are committed to meeting our customer service standards, including our targets for customer satisfaction and how easy customers find interacting with us. 

Overall customer experience — phone, webchat and digital services

Time period	Customer satisfaction	Net easy	Once and done
Apr	79.0%	+61.0	84.6%
May	77.6%	+58.2	83.8%
Jun	79.2%	+61.4	85.1%
Year to date	78.6%	+60.2	84.5%
Target	80%	+65	Not applicable

We also monitor our annual customer survey results, including topics such as ease of dealing with tax issues, and trust in HMRC.

These measures are recorded annually and are reported in HMRC’s annual report and accounts and our customer survey publications. 

Customer experience breakdown by channel 

When we break down our customer experience metrics for some of our key channels — phone, webchat and digital — we can see that the increasing number of customers using our online services to manage their tax affairs are generally satisfied with them, find them easy and can do what they need to. 

Customer satisfaction by channel

Time period	Digital services	Webchat	Phone
Apr	81.3%	71.7%	57.6%
May	80.2%	73.6%	55.2%
Jun	81.7%	73.1%	56.2%
Year to date	81.1%	72.8%	56.2%

Net easy by channel

Time period	Digital services	Webchat	Phone
Apr	+67.0	+44.0	+6.8
May	+64.7	+46.9	+1.9
Jun	+67.4	+46.1	+5.1
Year to date	+66.5	+45.7	+4.4

Once and done by channel

Time period	Digital services	Webchat	Phone
Apr	87.1%	71.7%	63.0%
May	86.5%	72.9%	60.6%
Jun	87.7%	72.3%	61.1%
Year to date	87.1%	72.3%	61.4%

2.3 Webchat measures 

Time period	Webchats submitted	Webchats — average speed of answer (mm:ss)	Webchats adviser attempts handled
Apr	53,730	01:54	94.7%
May	54,322	01:57	95.0%
Jun	64,429	02:12	94.8%
Year to date	170,481	02:02	94.8%

2.4 Telephony 

A digital self-serve experience remains our ambition for the majority of our customers, but we recognise that this will not be appropriate for all, and that some customers will need a period of adjustment to build familiarity and trust in them, and some customers are unable to use digital services or have complex queries. The measures below show the level of demand for our telephony services, call handling and wait times and how we’ve performed against our telephony target. 

Telephony performance

Time period	Adviser attempts handled	Average speed of answer (mm:ss)	Call attempts handled	Calls waiting more than 10 mins	Average call handling time (mm:ss)
Apr	87.8%	11:36	91.9%	46.4%	16:46
May	88.2%	11:26	92.2%	47.8%	17:14
Jun	87.8%	11:42	91.6%	49.7%	17:01
Year to date	87.9%	11:35	91.9%	48.0%	17:00
Target	85%	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable	Not applicable

Telephony volumes (millions)

Time period	Calls received (contacts)	Adviser attempts	Adviser attempts handled	Call attempts handled	Handled by automated systems	Not handled (abandoned, broadcasted messages or busies)
Apr	2.482	1.637	1.437	2.282	0.845	0.200
May	2.183	1.443	1.273	2.012	0.739	0.170
Jun	2.396	1.652	1.451	2.195	0.744	0.202
Year to date	7.061	4.732	4.160	6.489	2.329	0.573

2.5 Correspondence 

The correspondence performance data for April, May and June 2026 is currently undergoing final quality assurance checks. We intend to provide updated correspondence performance in September.

Correspondence volumes (million)

Time period	iForms received	Post receipts	Post requiring a response	Total correspondence requiring a response
Apr	0.320	1.312	0.997	1.317
May	0.315	1.593	1.210	1.525
Jun	0.220	1.418	1.002	1.221
Year to date	0.855	4.322	3.208	4.063

2.6 VAT and Customs clearance rates and receipts

Time period	VAT registrations clearance rate (% cleared within 40 days)	Customs declarations clearance rate (% of route 1 declarations cleared within 2 hours)	Customs declarations receipts
Apr	96.9%	99.1%	24,171
May	96.8%	99.7%	22,937
Jun	91.6%	99.5%	25,764
Year to date	95.0%	99.4%	72,872

Our Agents Service Dashboard shows current service levels for post and online requests, for tax advisers. 

2.7 Complaints 

We aim to get things right for customers first time, but when this doesn’t happen, we seek to provide a straightforward and accessible complaints process to say sorry and put things right. The measures below show complaint receipts and the proportion that were fully and partially upheld. 

Complaints measures (tier 1)

Time period	Complaints received	Fully upheld	Partially upheld	Not upheld
Apr	7,999	26.8%	19.7%	53.5%
May	7,171	27.4%	20.0%	52.6%
Jun	7,119	26.1%	21.6%	52.2%
Year to date	22,289	26.7%	20.6%	52.7%

Complaints measures (tier 2)

Time period	Number of complaints received	Fully upheld	Partially upheld	Not upheld
Apr	602	20.3%	31.9%	47.9%
May	574	17.3%	39.7%	43.0%
Jun	760	15.5%	33.5%	50.9%
Year to date	1,936	17.8%	34.6%	47.6%

3. Further performance measures

In addition to the performance metrics above, we also report a range of metrics on our three other strategic objectives in our annual report and accounts.

Reform and modernisation of tax and customs administration

The lead metric for this area is the Technical Health Maturity Score which assesses the overall condition and resilience of our technology systems and infrastructure, based on regulatory frameworks. In 2025 to 2026 we achieved a technical health maturity score of 3.3 out of 5, and we are focused on moving towards our desired IT architecture to achieve our target of 4.0 in 2029 to 2030.

Build a high-achieving organisation with a skilled and engaged workforce

We will monitor our progress on this objective using staff surveys including staff answering whether HMRC is a great place to work, and our ability to manage change.

Contribute to government economic aims, including through delivering the UK’s customs regime and transformation of Valuation Office

We will monitor HMRC’s contribution to government economic aims, including through delivering the UK’s customs regime and transformation of Valuation Office (VO). Metrics will include survey responses from businesses, answering how easy they find dealing with HMRC, as well as VO’s performance in non-domestic ratings checks and challenges.