Corporate report

HMRC performance data 2025 to 2026: quarter 4

Published 9 July 2026

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

This publication shows how we are performing against our key monthly and quarterly performance measures. Performance on other measures will be reported in our annual report and accounts. 

1. Close the tax gap

Our lead measures for this priority are the tax gap and compliance yield. In 2024 to 2025, the provisional estimate of 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 4 was:

£26.7 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) [note 1]
Q1	8,801
Q2	5,908
Q3	8,791
Q4	26,711
Year to date	50,211
Target	50,400

Note 1: May not sum due to rounding.

Compliance yield breakdown (£ million)

Time period	Cash expected	Revenue loss prevented	Future revenue benefit	Upstream yield	— of which: product and process yield	— of which: operational yield
Q1	1,937	2,485	4,054	325	0	325
Q2	2,681	2,137	274	816	499	317
Q3	2,490	3,879	260	2,162	371	1,791
Q4	5,039	3,520	382	17,769	4,101	13,668
Year to date	12,147	12,022	4,970	21,073	4,971	16,102

Tackling fraud

Time period	Positive charging decisions	Prosecutions	Closed criminal investigations	Success rate at court	Recovered proceeds of crime (£ million)
Q1	151	82	116	92.6%	36
Q2	131	79	102	91.1%	48
Q3	117	71	110	83.1%	24
Q4	69	68	160	77.9%	38
Year to date	468	300	488	86.7%	146

Criminal sentences

Time period	Criminal sentences — custodial (years)	Criminal sentences — suspended (years)
Q1	48.1	27.8
Q2	91.3	25.1
Q3	62.7	38.0
Q4	58.4	24.7
Year to date	260.5	115.6

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	42,592	5,938	36,654
Q2	43,833	6,102	37,730
Q3	44,018	5,878	38,139
Q4	44,671	6,885	37,786

New and resolved debt, and time to pay

Time period	New debt (£ million)	Debt resolved (£ million)	Customers in time to pay arrangements
Q1	22,401	23,995	870,601
Q2	24,555	24,836	830,906
Q3	22,429	23,940	766,873
Q4	34,207	29,080	884,319
Year to date	103,592	101,851	Not applicable

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	16,972	6,249	36.8%	1,479	950	64.2%
Q2	15,351	5,870	38.2%	1,399	969	69.3%
Q3	19,846	7,053	35.5%	1,289	835	64.8%
Q4	22,569	7,199	31.9%	1,588	1,119	70.5%
Year to date	74,738	26,371	35.3%	5,755	3,873	67.3%

Litigation

Time period	HMRC litigation court and tribunal decisions [note 2]	— of which: litigation win	— of which: litigation part win	— of which: litigation loss	Litigation success rate [note 3]
Q1	560	418	22	120	78.6%
Q2	570	487	18	65	88.6%
Q3	1,383	1,321	27	35	97.5%
Q4	476	420	19	37	92.2%
Year to date	2,989	2,646	86	257	91.4%

Note 2: 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 3: 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 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.  

In quarter 4, the proportion of our customer interactions through automated or digital self serve channels was:

77.1%

Our overall customer satisfaction score in 2025 to 2026 was:

79.4%

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. The figures below show the progress we’re making. 

Time period	Digital self-serve interactions (%) [note 4]	Personal Tax Account — Sessions (million)	Business Tax Account — Sessions (million)	HMRC App — Sessions (million)	HMRC App — New users (million)
Q1	76.3%	37.246	11.742	41.856	0.759
Q2	79.6%	29.128	10.804	34.897	0.653
Q3	79.7%	29.474	10.482	35.591	0.688
Q4	77.1%	48.063	15.349	46.444	0.744
Year to date	78.0%	143.912	48.378	158.787	2.843

Note 4: The digital channel self-serve % includes several types of interaction with customers that are not all covered in this publication, such as digital tax return submissions. 

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	79.5%	+62.6	84.6%
May	80.0%	+63.3	85.4%
Jun	81.0%	+64.8	86.3%
Jul	79.6%	+62.4	85.7%
Aug	80.3%	+63.5	85.8%
Sep	80.0%	+63.0	85.7%
Oct	80.1%	+63.0	86.0%
Nov	79.5%	+62.0	86.2%
Dec	78.1%	+58.8	85.7%
Jan	78.6%	+58.9	87.0%
Feb	78.4%	+60.5	84.0%
Mar	78.5%	+60.6	83.8%
Year to date	79.4%	+61.8	85.6%
Target	80%	+65	Not applicable

Annual customer survey results for: 

• ease of dealing with tax issues
• overall experience of dealing with HMRC over the last 12 months
• ease of finding information from HMRC
• HMRC is an organisation I can trust

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	Phone	Webchat	Digital services
Apr	55.5%	72.6%	82.3%
May	56.9%	73.1%	82.9%
Jun	55.1%	72.4%	84.0%
Jul	53.6%	70.8%	82.9%
Aug	58.0%	72.4%	83.1%
Sep	58.9%	72.5%	82.8%
Oct	59.1%	72.8%	82.7%
Nov	57.3%	73.6%	82.1%
Dec	53.9%	73.0%	80.9%
Jan	58.7%	76.7%	80.6%
Feb	58.9%	72.9%	80.8%
Mar	61.1%	71.4%	81.0%
Year to date	57.2%	72.8%	82.1%

Net easy by channel

Time period	Phone	Webchat	Digital services
Apr	+3.1	+45.6	+69.5
May	+6.2	+47.2	+70.5
Jun	+2.1	+44.6	+72.0
Jul	-0.7	+42.0	+70.2
Aug	+8.2	+44.1	+70.5
Sep	+9.9	+44.5	+70.0
Oct	+9.8	+46.2	+69.7
Nov	+5.3	+46.9	+68.5
Dec	-2.8	+44.9	+65.9
Jan	+8.0	+51.1	+63.8
Feb	+8.9	+45.9	+66.9
Mar	+14.3	+43.1	+67.1
Year to date	+5.9	+45.5	+68.5

Once and done by channel

Time period	Phone	Webchat	Digital services
Apr	61.2%	72.0%	87.3%
May	62.7%	73.1%	88.3%
Jun	60.8%	72.4%	89.2 %
Jul	59.9%	71.2%	89.0%
Aug	63.4%	72.2%	88.6%
Sep	64.1%	72.2%	88.5%
Oct	64.1 %	72.6%	88.8%
Nov	63.2%	73.2%	88.8%
Dec	61.2%	72.5%	88.6%
Jan	63.2%	75.7%	89.3%
Feb	64.6%	72.7%	86.5%
Mar	66.0%	72.1%	86.3%
Year to date	62.8%	72.7%	88.4%

2.3 Webchat measures

Time period	Webchats submitted	Webchats — average speed of answer (mm:ss)	Webchats adviser attempts handled
Apr	59,384	01:15	94.6%
May	71,288	00:59	95.8%
Jun	74,990	01:01	95.6%
Jul	77,642	00:59	96.4%
Aug	64,507	01:01	96.3%
Sep	76,797	01:10	96.7%
Oct	65,222	01:35	95.6%
Nov	58,449	01:38	95.5%
Dec	51,750	01:51	95.0%
Jan	69,598	01:52	94.4%
Feb	65,444	01:28	95.9%
Mar	58,894	01:41	95.2%
Year to date	793,965	01:21	95.6%

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	83.6%	13:31	89.4%	49.7%	16:00
May	84.6%	12:45	89.8%	48.7%	15:58
Jun	83.0%	13:24	88.5%	52.7%	15:48
Jul	82.8%	14:57	88.4%	57.0%	15:44
Aug	83.3%	13:25	88.8%	56.0%	15:58
Sep	85.4%	12:47	90.4%	52.2%	16:13
Oct	86.5%	11:46	90.9%	46.6%	16:40
Nov	85.3%	13:27	89.8%	52.8%	17:13
Dec	83.1%	16:45	88.4%	55.0%	17:27
Jan	83.7%	12:14	88.9%	44.6%	17:07
Feb	88.2%	10:27	92.1%	41.0%	17:29
Mar	91.3%	07:03	93.9%	27.5%	16:51
Year to date	85.1%	12:35	89.9%	48.2%	16:32
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	2.652	1.722	1.440	2.370	0.930	0.282
May	2.385	1.576	1.333	2.141	0.808	0.244
Jun	2.496	1.614	1.339	2.209	0.870	0.287
Jul	2.681	1.777	1.471	2.369	0.898	0.312
Aug	2.109	1.415	1.179	1.873	0.694	0.236
Sep	2.363	1.549	1.323	2.136	0.814	0.226
Oct	2.262	1.512	1.308	2.055	0.747	0.207
Nov	2.090	1.426	1.217	1.877	0.661	0.212
Dec	2.052	1.409	1.171	1.814	0.642	0.238
Jan	2.958	1.860	1.557	2.630	1.073	0.328
Feb	2.382	1.574	1.388	2.192	0.805	0.189
Mar	2.643	1.729	1.578	2.483	0.905	0.160
Year to date	29.071	19.163	16.304	26.150	9.846	2.922

2.5 Correspondence 

The measures below show the volume of correspondence we receive, how we’ve performed against our targets to clear correspondence within 15 and 40 working days and VAT registration and customs measures. 

Response rates

Time period	Correspondence cleared within 15 working days	Correspondence cleared within 40 working days [note 5]
Apr	68.2%	82.4%
May	68.5%	85.5%
Jun	68.9%	85.9%
Jul	74.9%	86.3%
Aug	85.1%	90.0%
Sep	86.6%	91.9%
Oct	87.8%	92.5%
Nov	85.1%	91.7%
Dec	77.5%	90.5%
Jan	84.4%	92.7%
Feb	80.3%	89.0%
Mar	85.8%	90.4%
Year to date	79.4%	89.0%
Target	80%	95%

Note 5: Data is lagged by a month. 

Correspondence volumes (million)

Time period	iForms received	Post receipts	Post requiring a response	Total correspondence requiring a response
Apr	0.338	1.324	0.996	1.334
May	0.338	1.679	1.157	1.495
Jun	0.261	1.370	0.990	1.251
Jul	0.258	1.428	0.967	1.226
Aug	0.300	1.522	1.097	1.396
Sep	0.250	1.142	0.862	1.112
Oct	0.283	1.633	1.213	1.496
Nov	0.226	1.279	0.958	1.183
Dec	0.193	1.020	0.775	0.969
Jan	0.348	1.467	1.123	1.471
Feb	0.274	1.273	1.022	1.296
Mar	0.282	1.279	1.006	1.288
Year to date	3.350	16.417	12.167	15.516

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	98.3%	94.6%	23,828
May	97.9%	99.5%	22,615
Jun	97.6%	98.6%	23,593
Jul	97.4%	99.3%	24,217
Aug	95.4%	99.4%	22,378
Sep	88.0%	99.5%	22,849
Oct	94.1%	99.7%	25,033
Nov	94.4%	99.5%	22,818
Dec	95.6%	98.2%	22,492
Jan	97.0%	99.7%	20,688
Feb	98.0%	99.7%	22,270
Mar	97.9%	99.4%	25,079
Year to date	95.8%	98.9%	277,860

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	7,799	26.8%	18.8%	54.4%
May	6,901	26.1%	19.0%	54.9%
Jun	7,208	26.4%	18.4%	55.3%
Jul	8,015	28.0%	19.3%	52.7%
Aug	6,264	25.6%	20.4%	53.9%
Sep	7,075	25.1%	19.9%	55.0%
Oct	7,037	28.7%	19.1%	52.2%
Nov	6,727	28.2%	20.1%	51.6%
Dec	6,852	28.9%	21.4%	49.7%
Jan	7,911	26.5%	22.2%	51.3%
Feb	7,446	27.8%	19.6%	52.6%
Mar	8,118	26.8%	19.6%	53.6%
Year to date	87,353	27.1%	19.8%	53.1%

Complaints measures (tier 2)

Time period	Number of complaints received	Fully upheld	Partially upheld	Not upheld
Apr	388	10.2%	34.5%	55.3%
May	406	15.5%	34.5%	50.0%
Jun	412	16.8%	38.1%	45.1%
Jul	455	16.7%	38.4%	44.9%
Aug	403	13.9%	41.6%	44.5%
Sep	442	13.4%	47.2%	39.4%
Oct	512	16.6%	42.9%	40.5%
Nov	429	20.0%	40.1%	39.9%
Dec	443	15.6%	41.2%	43.1%
Jan	493	15.9%	38.9%	45.2%
Feb	535	23.8%	40.8%	35.5%
Mar	558	25.9%	36.1%	38.0%
Year to date	5,476	17.9%	39.5%	42.5%