to think HM Revenue and Customs are a bunch of idiots that need to get their facts straight

[whoneedssleepanyway]

830am saturday morning, DH is out running, an officer from HMRC turns up on the doorstep with a letter saying DH's company owes £45k in PAYE that is extremely overdue and asking to see him to sort this out, I was thinking WTF, had the guy on the doorstep for about half an hour before he left and I agreed DH would phone him today. It is all a massive mix up, everything is up to date but payments have been allocated to the wrong reference number, DH has been trying to sort this out with the idiots for over 6 months and thought it had all been allocated correctly now.

The man himself was an outsourced debt collector who didn't have direct access to HMRC's records and systems anyway and was relying on information they had sent him which was clearly incorrect, it was a joke he was phoning up HMRC themselves from our doorstep to get more details.

AIBU to think it isn't too much to ask that they make sure they have their facts straight before turning up on the doorstep first thing in the morning on a Saturday.

no yanbu

Oh this happened to me (minus a scary visit at the front door)! I kept getting letters to say that I hadn't paid my nanny's PAYE so stupidly paid the "outstanding" amount 3 times before I realised that they were allocating to the wrong period. When i phoned up (because they threatened debt collectors) and said that I had paid the money and sent letters to them, they said that it takes them about 4 weeks to read letters. . YANBU.

YADNBU. We have had a debt collector on our doorstep several times this year regarding outstanding VAT on a business that has been dissolved. DH keeps telling HMRC and they keep sending the bloke back. Very annoying, especially as he turns up at 7am

He has finally gotten through to them now though. You just need to keep telling them and eventually they understand :)

DH is hopping mad and going to complain. The guy was just such a smug little twat.

OP, make sure that you complain in writing and that in future you follow up every phonecall with a letter. While the phone is quicker and usually more effective, a letter is the only way to prove that you were communicating with them.

It's not only HMRC,the brain dead people are everywhere behind the desks.My way to deal with them is to take a name of the person that I have spoken to on the phone-if anything goes wrong I've got a name to refer to.Just lost my patience when they cock something up trying to blame me and sometimes charge me AGAIN because something was "lost,forgotten" or "sorry Ms.D we haven't received this".I'm so fed up with them wasting my time

Don't forget the 4th of the World's Great Lies - "I'm from the Government - I'm here to help."

Australian Customs are no smarter. Back in the 70s when asbestos was still able to be legally used my Dad's company was a major importer of the stuff. We had a bale of it that was dunked in seawater in HongKong harbour and went mouldy, so we surrendered it to Customs to save paying the duty on something that was unsaleable. A month later I got a phonecall from customs asking what the best way was to dispose of the stuff. Apparently they'd tried to incinerate the stuff but were really confused because it didn't seem to want to burn.

YANBU, HMRC is a total mess. I filed my return last year and got a refund pretty promptly. So far, points to HMRC for being quick off the mark - I was impressed.

Until I began receiving demands for penalties for "failing to file" for the same tax year. Rang them and they huffed and puffed that I had to pay and that it was all my fault somehow until it turned out the totally twats department had somehow created a new tax number for me, so I had two taxpayer IDs.

They had to delete the second one, and managed to make it seem like it was my fault "well don't let this happen again". No, I won't, even though I filed the return UNDER THE CORRECT AND ORIGINAL NUMBER and you refunded the relevant tax.

They are massively understaffed thanks to cuts so very error prone. Question any demand you receive, as many are incorrect.

HMRC do not know their derriere from their elbow - I paid my PAYE back in January well before the deadline via online banking. Somehow the money went to reference number.

Anyway, month after deadline I received a letter saying payment was overdue so I contacted them immediately, well as immediately as their customer service phone line allows! Spoke to someone and told them the situation quoting all relevant reference codes. I was told the issue would take up to 3 weeks to resolve itself. To try and speed things up I sent a letter and copy of bank statement showing money leaving my account and relevant reference codes.

A month on I got a further - another threatening letter say payment overdue. So another 30 minutes on hold telephone call later I was told they had all the details required and that it would take another 3 weeks to resolve.

A month later I get a letter threatening me with a debt collector taking my tv (which is in dh's name) and any other goods of value to sell to get back their money.

So I phone again to politely ask what the heck is going on to be informed that the issue had been resolved on the day that the 3rd letter had been printed and sent.

I was so angry that I burst into tears on the phone (much to my disgust and annoyance).

Did I receive a letter of apology and confirmation of the issue being resolved - No I blooming didn't. Instead a month later I received a nil balance statement.

Now I consider myself a levelheaded, intelligent women (well someone has to think that about me), who could deal with this situation - but what if I had been old and infirm?