How annoying is it that you ring the employers helpline at 3.00pm and the recorded message tells you they're far to busy to talk to you and cuts you off - without even giving you the option to hold - and then when you try again out of hours (6.45pm) it still does it. ? They are USELESS !!!
I was reading a bit of performance management stuff today and its actually in an ACCA study text as one of the things that your supposed to learn as to why government departments are sooo bad.
The two elements that really stuck in my mind was that :
1) They have no concept of capital as a scarce resource
2) They are rewarded with bigger budgets for failure.
Reading your post it sounds as though HMRC call centres should be in for a huge budget increase! lol
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
It drives me insane that you sit through the recorded messages and then they cut you off. Going to try again now ! It's 7.00pm. Surely they will answer now ?
7.40pm and still the same message ? I'm sorry but they have got the answer machine on and have no intention of taking calls. It is absolutely appalling. My client has had a letter telling them they owe £18,000 in unpaid PAYE - which they don't, it's all paid. I speak to the very aggressive man from the Debt Collection office this morning - who before I could even tell him that we had paid in full was telling me how the tax was due and I had to pay it over the phone there and then ! We eventually establish that for some unknown reason there are 2 PAYE references in circulation and the payments are on one and the P35s are on the other. I am told by this man that I have to speak to the employers helpline urgently before they send debt collectors in - but now I can't get to speak to them ! Director is on his honeymoon, ex accountant who was responsible for the PAYE isn't responding to emails. Aagghh !!
Bit cheeeky but have you tried "accidentally" phoning the wrong department then asking to be transfered? When things are transfered internally they are more likely to be responded to.
Not aqctually done that myself with HMRC but I have done it with a bank and it worked.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
There isn't a 64-8 in place as I don't do the payroll. I got away with it this morning as I was on site and passed myself off as an employee - and I had all the answers to the questions. I will try the number tomorrow tho thank you. It's not good enough though on their part. It's no good giving recorded messages to look on the web site for stuff like this. You need to be able to hold and speak to someone. Letter to my MP might be happening !!!
I have a long detailed list of attempts to get hold of HMRC from December 2011 through to May 2012 on behalf of my daughter whilst trying to arrange for collection of underpaid tax. She spent numerous attempts (on her mobile) to get hold of them, as gillyfleur said sitting through the recorded messages about looking for help online only to be cut off. She spent nearly £25 doing this and then gave up. I phoned from home phone and got through only to be kept waiting for nearly 1 hour, only to be told that they had already sent her a form out about a week previously (which never arrived, so we had to phone again).
The annoying thing was that we had spoken to them before Xmas as she had received a P800 then and they took details and said someone would phone us in January "at some point" (their exact words) to arrange collection by direct debit. Next thing we knew we received a letter saying they had tried to contact us and were unable to, so please contact us URGENTLY to arrange to pay. Cheek! More phone calls ensued, either getting cut off, or holding so long we were forced to cut off ourselves.
Anyway, it is now finally all sorted, but I feel some sort of complaint letter coming on.....possibly deducting the cost of all the phone calls from the amount of tax my daughter owes!
@Gilly. HMRC should be split into several competing units with taxpayers free to choose a local or more efficient provider as they see fit.
Pauline, what year was the P800 for? There are some fairly standard letters on the net available to begin challenging their right to collect under ESCA19 rules.
It was for the 10/11 tax year and to be honest it was such a small amount (well £85) that it's probably not worth bothering about. And don't think I can face it...lol Although I will have a look see if I can find something.
She was in receipt of incapacity benefit when she started her job and filled in her P46 incorrectly as she didn't think incapacity benefit was taxable, so it was her fault anyway.
Ahhh what a shame. That would be 'in-time' for the Revenue to assess and wouldn't win under the concession; just don't like to miss an opportunity at crossing swords with our friends who don't like telephones. It reminds me of a client who used to be fond of saying "This business would be alright if it wasn't for the customers". He was only half-joking lol
Thought it might have been one of the 4 year old ones with it having been assessed last year. In fact I think they'd have until 5.4.13 to issue the P800. Tim
