HM R&C are a flamin' shower...

[del320]

Couple of weeks ago the brown envelope fell onto the mat. Our friends in HMRC informed wifey that her coding was changing to D0 and she would enjoy paying a higher rate towards Gordon's war chest - despite being retired since 2002.

As she naturally gets apprehensive about "official" stuff, I grabbed it and scrawled in capital letters over the letter that this was arrant nonsense, her circumstances hadn't changed and to "sort it." The buggers even expect you pay for a stamp so I just folded it up to show the Bootle address and stuck down the envelope.

Today, she received a fulsome apology from a named individual who has even signed it legibly.

"I'm afraid the new PAYE computer system has a mind of its own ... and it decided to ... because it thought you were a higher rate taxpayer..."
More complete and utter rubbish... Grrrr!

There was mention in the news that millions of incorrect tax code notices had been issued by this independently-minded computer. (At what cost?)

Anyone here received similar, or is there anyone here who would care to admit to working for these cretins?

...feel better now...

 

[stevieb15]

What would you expect from an organisation staffed by people who are basically nothing more than glorified council workers?

 

[wemorgan]

My accountant says ~90% of the tax codes he sees are incorrect.
I'm told to just file and ignore the notices.
So far this tax years I think I've received 3 different codes.

 

[Satch]

Some of you will have seen Coding Notices flopping onto your door mat showing you now have a "K" code.

That appears to mean:

1. You are a Pluted Bloatocrat and deserve to suffer.

2. All your Personal Allowances have vanished WEF from 6 April 2010

3. Ignoring all other tax effects, that alone will cost you will an extra £216 tax per month at the 40% rate. Also, any pension contributions you make will now only qualify for tax relief at 20%

5. A surprising number of people do not know this.

 

[blondebier]

In a previous life I did some consulting for a few years. Classed as "self employed". When the time came around, I promptly filed my self assessment tax return online. I got a letter a few months later effectively saying that, "we understand you are a consultant blah blah ... and don't believe you earned what you declared. We want to see some proof and are opening an investigation. Please send us your life history for the past 2 years..." (At the time, I was in the mind set that money isn't everything and only earned what we needed to pay the bills.)

I was made to feel like a criminal. I had to send copies of everything.

About 6 months later, I received a bill from their chief inspector (or some such title), demanding payment for unpaid tax + interest of around £100.

I promptly wrote a cheque for the amount and posted it off.

A few days later I contacted the HMRC call centre to check that it had arrived and to check that my slate was clean.

I was told that there was still an outstanding amount as interest had accrued on the unpaid tax in the time that it had taken me to receive the notice and write them a cheque. I asked them what I should do about this and they said, "Don't worry, it will catch up with you eventually". I said that I didn't want it to "catch up with me eventually" and I want to pay it.

I was promptly transferred to a very helpful assistant who took the payment over the phone using a card...

It was less than 50p! (IIRC - 37p!)

 

[wemorgan]

In a previous life I did some consulting for a few years. Classed as "self employed". When the time came around, I promptly filed my self assessment tax return online. I got a letter a few months later effectively saying that, "we understand you are a consultant blah blah ... and don't believe you earned what you declared. We want to see some proof and are opening an investigation. Please send us your life history for the past 2 years..." (At the time, I was in the mind set that money isn't everything and only earned what we needed to pay the bills.)

I was made to feel like a criminal. I had to send copies of everything.

About 6 months later, I received a bill from their chief inspector (or some such title), demanding payment for unpaid tax + interest of around £100.

I promptly wrote a cheque for the amount and posted it off.

A few days later I contacted the HMRC call centre to check that it had arrived and to check that my slate was clean.

I was told that there was still an outstanding amount as interest had accrued on the unpaid tax in the time that it had taken me to receive the notice and write them a cheque. I asked them what I should do about this and they said, "Don't worry, it will catch up with you eventually". I said that I didn't want it to "catch up with me eventually" and I want to pay it.

I was promptly transferred to a very helpful assistant who took the payment over the phone using a card...

It was less than 50p! (IIRC - 37p!)

Deja vu for me!

Frustrating that letters sent to HMRC took 3 months for them to open. But their invoices took them 7-10 days to post to me, but accruing interest in the meantime. I simply could write the cheques fast enough. The fines were with added interest. But when almost 12 months later I was given a partial rebate, did I receive added interested for my loss? Answers on a postcard to.........

Now I'm self employed any investigations can be back dated 7 years. But fear not, flexible working self employed people are the back bone of this economy, or so I read

 

[blondebier]

Deja vu for me!

Frustrating that letters sent to HMRC took 3 months for them to open. But their invoices took them 7-10 days to post to me, but accruing interest in the meantime. I simply could write the cheques fast enough. The fines were with added interest. But when almost 12 months later I was given a partial rebate, did I receive added interested for my loss? Answers on a postcard to.........

Now I'm self employed any investigations can be back dated 7 years. But fear not, flexible working self employed people are the back bone of this economy, or so I read

It's so frustrating! It's one of the reason's I packed it in and got a "proper job", and now someone else can take do all of this for me.

It's hardly encouraging new start-ups is it?

It also annoys me that these so called "tax experts" get paid an absolute fortune to find little bits of unpaid tax here there and everywhere.

I'd love to know how many hours this bloke spent looking at my affairs and how much HMRC paid him vs the £100 he says I owed.

In my case, if I had put one of my figures in another box and used up my allowances(as I had a home office) I would have actually paid less tax. I just lost the will to live filling in the damn thing and didn't bother...

Anyway, you live and learn. I actually like accountants now. I never thought I would ever say that!

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

I've had to file a self assessment for the last few years, each time I end up getting a letter that I owe 47p or 53p or some minute amount.

Either my employer is not working it out correctly, or they're taking more than they should...place your bets anyone?

 

[nigel cross]

The whole system stinks, my dad is 89 and because he has interest from his various investments, he still has to fill in a tax return, because they classify it as an income.

 

[raymont]

The whole system stinks, my dad is 89 and because he has interest from his various investments, he still has to fill in a tax return, because they classify it as an income.

Whilst being no fan of HMRC income is subject to tax however old you are so completing a tax return would seem reasonable.

Having said that I'm sure the byzantine complexity of tax law could do with a dose of simplification which would mean less staff to administer it and an increased possibility of tax payers completing forms on time and correctly.

 

[rogkildare]

Taxing times

Tax could be simplified but that would do away for the need of accountants or agents. Do away with 'Reduced Age Allowance' would remove 50% of over 65 pensioners from Self Assessment for a start and the administration saving at HMRC alone would more than compensate for loss of revenue.
HMRC's new computer system has taken the human element away and is totally automatic, even staff (what's left of them) was dredding it.

 

[Frank O' Phile]

What would you expect from an organisation staffed by people who are basically nothing more than glorified council workers?

"I'm afraid the new PAYE computer system has a mind of its own ... and it decided to ... because it thought you were a higher rate taxpayer..."

Seems to me like they have must have some brains as they have managed to create a form of Artificial Intelligence.

 

[janner]

HMRC will happily spend £200 to collect £100 in tax.

 

[rogkildare]

Onwards and downwards

Agreed....Lot of the problem is like many other businesses (as HMRC now like to call it) they have managers on the shop floor that are quite capable as they have been brought up through the ranks. Unfortunately they have to justify and seek approval from senior management who know nothing as they are hired at boardroom level from unrelated industries so require advisers.

 

[wxmclk]

The major problem with HMRC stems from their idiotic and totally misguided approach to LEAN working- it failed, now re-packaged as PACESETTER or something.
The LEAN consultants came from UNIPART at a cost of around £7million. These people are great at organising car parts but bad at organising civil servants not used to change.

 

[BigBenz]

My 19 yr old daughter received 2 tax coding letters last week, 1 for a part time job she has, the other for working for a MRS ELIZABETH MCPHERSON who none of us have ever heard of......answers on a postcard

To make matters worse she is at Uni at the other end of the country so I can't sort it out for her easily just yet

 

[Noodle-Pulp]

My 19 yr old daughter received 2 tax coding letters last week, 1 for a part time job she has, the other for working for a MRS ELIZABETH MCPHERSON who none of us have ever heard of......answers on a postcard

To make matters worse she is at Uni at the other end of the country so I can't sort it out for her easily just yet

This brings up some interesting results:
MRS ELIZABETH MCPHERSON - Google Search

 

[Satch]

Studenty No.1 son had a part time job throughout 2007/8 and thanks to the inefficiency of HMRC plus the indifference of his employers payroll department got clocked tax on most of it despite submitting all the required forms on day 1.

It has taken 18 months to get that back, involving multiple requests to fill the same form in. In some God forsaken processing centre they had people working through a backlog of 100,000 bits of post and his claim was in there.

So, fills in form No 1. Many weeks pass. no response. Drafts crappy letter

More weeks pass, response to crappy letter 1 is, yes, nothing more than same form as before. Does so, sends back form No.2 with letter and copy of first form plus original letter

More weeks pass. Gets a written response to form No 1 asking for further info and yes, fill in another form. Responds to point out stupidity, completes form No 3, copies of previous forms & letters. Sends it off.

Months pass and sends a really sh1tty letter copied to MP.

Some weeks later cheque arrives. Huzzah!

Over next months it becomes clear from drizzle of further forms, stupid letters etc that cheque had been driven entirely by form No.1 that had eventually surfaced from the sea of unprocessed mail.

They were dealing with each other item created by the gross delays and requests for further forms individually and so had created multiple and disjointed work tasks for processing one very simple reclaim.

 

[BigBenz]

This brings up some interesting results:
MRS ELIZABETH MCPHERSON - Google Search

Thanks Noodle-Pulp, the one that worried me was the Lottery Scam
Seeing daughter this w/end so will ring HMRC while with her - I don't hold out much hope of a speedy resolution though

 

[Aoraki]

I'm not going to complain about HMRC, 1st of Feb and I get the brown letter. "Bugger", I thought, what do they want, after all my Self Assesment has gone in. I pick up courage and open it, had to read it twice, refund cheque for a tad over 2k :bannana:
Booked Florida for a fortnight in Nov, thank you HMRC