Corporate report

HMRC performance data 2025 to 2026: quarter 3

Published 12 February 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 performance measures within each strategic objective. Some measures are updated each month, others each quarter. Annual metrics, including those for reforming and modernising tax and customs administration, will be included in the Annual Report and Accounts.

1. Close the tax gap

Our lead measures for this priority are the tax gap and compliance yield. In 2023 to 2024, the tax gap was:

5.3%

Maintaining the long-term reduction from 7.4% in 2005 to 2006. The absolute value was £46.8 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 2025 edition: tax gap estimates for 2023 to 2024. 

The compliance yield we brought in during quarter 3 was:

£8.6 billion

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.  

Key Performance Indicators	Q1	Q2	Q3	Year to date	Target
Total compliance yield (£ million)	9,321	6,273	8,637	24,231	50,400

Compliance yield breakdown	Q1	Q2	Q3	Year to date
Cash expected from compliance (£ million)	2,457	3,045	2,336	7,838
Revenue loss prevented (£ million)	2,485	2,137	3,880	8,502
Future revenue benefit (£ million)	4,054	274	260	4,587
Upstream yield (£ million)	325	816	2,162	3,303
— of which: upstream product and process yield (£ million)	0	499	371	870
— of which: upstream operational yield (£ million)	325	317	1,791	2,433

Tackling fraud	Q1	Q2	Q3	Year to date
Positive charging decisions	151	131	103	385
Total prosecutions	81	72	46	199
Success rate at court	92.6%	91.7%	86.9%	90.9%
Criminal sentences — custodial (years)	48.1	76.7	53.2	178.0
Criminal sentences — suspended (years)	27.8	23.7	29.1	80.6
Closed criminal investigations	117	121	114	352
Value of recovered proceeds of crime and Code of Practice 9 civil investigations (£ million)	32	46	25	103

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 and time to pay	Q1	Q2	Q3
Total debt balance (£ million)	42,592	43,833	44,018
— of which: managed debt (£ million)	6,512	6,657	6,253
— of which: debt available for pursuit (£ million)	36,080	37,176	37,765
Number of customers in time to pay arrangements	870,601	830,906	766,873

New debt and debt resolved	Q1	Q2	Q3	Year to date
Value of new debt (£ million)	22,401	24,555	22,429	69,384
Value of debt resolved (£ million)	23,995	24,836	23,940	72,771

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 measures	Q1	Q2	Q3	Year to date
Number of HMRC reviews concluded (related to automated penalties)	16,972	15,352	19,806	52,130
— of which: number of HMRC decisions upheld (related to automated penalties)	6,259	5,875	7,072	19,206
Upheld rate (related to automated penalties)	36.9%	38.3%	35.7%	36.8%
Number of HMRC reviews concluded (related to all other matters)	1,482	1,400	1,279	4,161
— of which: number of HMRC decisions upheld (related to all other matters)	951	969	832	2,752
Upheld rate (related to all other matters)	64.2%	69.2%	65.1%	66.1%
HMRC litigation court and tribunal decisions [note 1] [note 2]	683	610	1,331	2,624
— of which: HMRC litigation win	546	530	1,286	2,362
— of which: HMRC litigation part win	22	16	17	55
— of which: HMRC litigation loss	115	64	28	207
Litigation success rate	83.2%	89.5%	97.9%	92.1%

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: This data does not include a large number of appeals relating to a particular scheme, where we successfully applied to the courts to have the appeals struck off. This keeps the data comparable to previous publications.

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

79.6%

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

79.8%

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. 

Digital channel adoption	Q1	Q2	Q3	Year to date
Customer interactions through automated or digital self-serve channels (% of all customer interactions) [note 3]	76.3%	79.6%	79.6%	78.4%
Personal Tax Account — Sessions	37,246,322	29,127,987	29,474,414	95,848,723
Business Tax Account — Sessions	11,741,524	10,804,463	10,482,297	33,028,284
HMRC App — Sessions	41,855,623	34,896,747	35,590,594	112,342,964
HMRC App — New users	758,623	653,160	687,526	2,099,309

Note 3: 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. 

Customer experience 

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

Due to the amount of data presented, only part of the table below is visible. Please use the scrollbar at the bottom of the table to view all the columns. 

Customer experience measures - phone, webchat and digital services	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date	Target
Overall customer satisfaction	79.5%	80.0%	81.0%	79.7%	80.3%	79.9%	80.1%	79.5%	78.1%	79.8%	80%
Net easy	+62.6	+63.3	+64.8	+62.4	+63.5	+62.7	+63.1	+62.1	+58.8	+62.6	+65
Once and done	84.6%	85.4%	86.3%	85.7%	85.8%	85.6%	86.0%	86.2%	85.7%	85.7%	Not applicable

In addition to the measures above, we also publish annual customer survey results that help us understand the customer experience. Questions include:

• 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 reported in HMRC’s annual report and accounts and our annual 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. 

Overall customer satisfaction

Channel	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date
Phone	55.5%	56.9%	55.1%	53.6%	58.0%	58.9%	59.1%	57.3%	53.9%	56.2%
Webchat	72.6%	73.1%	72.4%	70.8%	72.4%	72.5%	72.8%	73.6%	73.0%	72.5%
Digital services	82.3%	82.9%	84.0%	82.9%	83.1%	82.8%	82.7%	82.1%	80.9%	82.7%

Net easy 

Channel	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date
Phone	+3.1	+6.2	+2.1	-0.7	+8.2	+9.9	+9.8	+5.3	-2.8	+4.1
Webchat	+45.6	+47.2	+44.6	+42.0	+44.1	+44.5	+46.2	+46.9	+44.9	+45.0
Digital services	+69.5	+70.5	+72.0	+70.3	+70.6	+70.0	+69.7	+68.6	+66.0	+69.7

Once and done 

Channel	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date
Phone	61.2%	62.7%	60.8%	59.9%	63.4%	64.1%	64.1%	63.2%	61.2%	62.1%
Webchat	72.0%	73.1%	72.4%	71.2%	72.2%	72.2%	72.6%	73.2%	72.5%	72.4%
Digital services	87.3%	88.3%	89.2%	89.0%	88.6%	88.6%	88.8%	88.9%	88.6%	88.6%

Webchat measures 

Due to the amount of data presented, only part of the table below is visible. Please use the scrollbar at the bottom of the table to view all the columns. 

Webchat measure	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date
Webchats submitted	59,384	71,288	74,990	77,642	64,507	76,797	65,222	58,449	51,750	600,029
Webchats — average speed of answer (mm:ss)	01:15	00:59	01:01	00:59	01:01	01:10	01:35	01:38	01:51	01:14
Webchats adviser attempts handled	94.6%	95.8%	95.6%	96.4%	96.3%	96.7%	95.6%	95.5%	95.0%	95.8%

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. 

Due to the amount of data presented, only part of the table below is visible. Please use the scrollbar at the bottom of the table to view all the columns. 

Telephony performance	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date	Target
Telephony adviser attempts handled	83.6%	84.6%	83.0%	82.8%	83.3%	85.4%	86.5%	85.3%	83.1%	84.2%	85%
Average speed of answer (mm:ss)	13:31	12:45	13:24	14:57	13:25	12:47	11:46	13:27	16:45	13:37	Not applicable
Call attempts handled	89.4%	89.8%	88.5%	88.4%	88.8%	90.4%	90.9%	89.8%	88.4%	89.4%	Not applicable
Customer calls waiting more than 10 mins	49.7%	48.7%	52.7%	57.0%	56.0%	52.2%	46.6%	52.8%	55.0%	52.2%	Not applicable
Average call handling time (mm:ss)	16:00	15:58	15:48	15:44	15:58	16:13	16:40	17:13	17:27	16:19	Not applicable

Telephony volumes	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date
Number of calls received (contacts)	2,651,525	2,385,404	2,495,745	2,680,666	2,108,912	2,362,932	2,261,779	2,089,644	2,051,860	21,088,467
Number of call attempts handled	2,369,766	2,140,910	2,208,844	2,369,028	1,872,981	2,136,454	2,055,057	1,877,479	1,813,660	18,844,179
Number handled by automated systems	929,527	807,747	869,620	898,059	693,954	813,666	746,993	660,944	642,441	7,062,951
Number of adviser attempts	1,721,859	1,576,141	1,614,184	1,776,722	1,414,577	1,549,202	1,511,607	1,426,347	1,408,961	13,999,600
Number of adviser attempts handled	1,440,239	1,333,163	1,339,224	1,470,969	1,179,027	1,322,788	1,308,064	1,216,535	1,171,219	11,781,228
Calls not handled (abandoned, broadcasted messages or busies)	281,759	244,494	286,901	311,638	235,931	226,478	206,722	212,165	238,200	2,244,288

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. 

Due to the amount of data presented, only part of the table below is visible. Please use the scrollbar at the bottom of the table to view all the columns. 

Correspondence performance	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date	Target
Correspondence received by HMRC that has been cleared within 15 working days of receipt	68.2%	68.6%	68.9%	74.9%	85.1%	86.7%	88.9%	87.8%	79.3%	78.6%	80%
Correspondence received by HMRC that has been cleared within 40 working days of receipt [note 4]	82.4%	85.6%	86.0%	85.4%	87.7%	92.0%	92.6%	92.6%	TBC	87.9%	95%

Note 4: Data is lagged by a month. 

Correspondence volumes	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date
iForms received	337,603	337,688	261,043	258,438	299,623	249,699	283,451	225,572	193,207	2,446,324
Post receipts	1,324,040	1,679,377	1,370,393	1,427,945	1,521,718	1,142,401	1,632,628	1,279,070	1,020,217	12,397,789
Post where customers require a response	996,296	1,157,365	989,965	967,274	1,096,545	862,107	1,212,689	957,587	775,347	9,015,175
Total correspondence where customers require a response	1,333,899	1,495,053	1,251,008	1,225,712	1,396,168	1,111,806	1,496,140	1,183,159	968,554	11,461,499

VAT and Customs clearance rates and receipts	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date
VAT registrations clearance rate (% cleared within 40 days)	98.3%	97.9%	97.6%	97.4%	95.4 %	88.0%	94.1%	94.4%	95.6%	95.2%
Customs declarations clearance rate (% of route 1 declarations cleared within 2 hours)	94.6%	99.5%	98.6%	99.3%	99.4 %	99.5%	99.7%	99.5%	98.2%	98.7%
Customs declarations receipts	23,828	22,615	23,593	24,217	22,378	22,849	25,033	22,818	22,492	209,823

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

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	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year to date
Tier 1 number of complaints received	7,753	6,880	7,169	7,988	6,231	6,954	7,024	6,675	5,623	62,297
Tier 1 fully upheld	26.8%	26.1%	26.4%	27.9%	25.6%	25.0%	28.6%	28.2%	28.8%	27.1%
Tier 1 partially upheld	18.7%	19.0%	18.4%	19.3%	20.4%	20.0%	19.1%	20.2%	21.5%	19.6%
Tier 1 not upheld	54.4%	54.9%	55.2%	52.8%	54.0%	55.0%	52.3%	51.6%	49.7%	53.3%
Tier 2 number of complaints received	387	407	410	454	405	440	505	427	351	3,786
Tier 2 fully upheld	10.3%	15.5%	16.8%	16.7%	13.8%	13.4%	16.5%	19.9%	15.6%	15.8%
Tier 2 partially upheld	34.6%	34.5%	38.1%	38.4%	41.5%	47.2%	42.6%	39.5%	41.4%	40.0%
Tier 2 not upheld	55.1%	50.0%	45.1%	44.9%	44.7%	39.4%	40.8%	40.6%	43.0%	44.2%