The plan to close all 281 of the UK’s walk-in tax enquiry centres is “deeply flawed” and will cost more than it will save, according to the leading trade union for civil servants.

The Public Commercial and Commercial Services Union (PCS) has questioned HMRC’s claim that each taxpayer visit costs the department an average of £152 – which the union estimates to amount to £380m a year, more than 10% of the taxman’s …