17th
Nov 2021
In its recent report The Times has exposed the absolute chaos surrounding the HM Revenue and Customs’ massive blunder which has severely impacted a landlord and countless others across the UK.
In its feature The Times report that over the last year people trying to contact the HMRC by phone took on average more than twelve minutes to be answered when trying to get through to its ‘Where’s My Reply?’ service, and that users had to wait up to 7 months before receiving any written reply.
The broadsheet also reports that anyone requesting any information from the HMRC about a tax rebate was told that they could wait until June next year for any form of reply.
Over the last twelve months HMRC has answered 33.5m calls of which 2.5m calls were made to its special Covid helpline.
The newspaper included many case studies one of which highlights an example of the tax chaos impacting a landlord.
She was “bombarded for months with demands for £383 in tax payments - including from tax collectors - even though she was instead owed a rebate.”
Although the landlord’s accountant attempted to intervene and put the record straight but despite this she is still being contacted on behalf of the HMRC by a debt collection service demanding payments.
The landlord wished to remain anonymous told the paper: “I’m angry that one part of HMRC is pursuing this route at the same time as another part is reassuring my accountant the money isn’t owed. It’s completely shambolic and has left me extremely frustrated and saddled with extra costs.”
This absolute fiasco surrounding this case study and many others featured in the story just shows the absolute chaotic running of the HMRC in spite of employing 26,000 customer service staff.
However around 5,000 of the team have had to deal with furlough enquiries.
The feature ends with an interview given by Angela MacDonald, the deputy chief executive of HMRC, who apologised profusely for the issues but warned the problems are more than likely ongoing into Spring 2022.
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