To think the Inland Revenue are spectacularly good at wasting tax payers' money?

[InternationalPower]

DH has recently crept over the threshold where we are not eligible for full child benefit. We knew this and he knew he needed to register for self-assessment to repay some of it. We have continued claiming because 1) it protects my state pension (have never got to the bottom of how this is done if I stop claiming) and 2) we are still entitled to some of it, as it reduces on a sliding scale.

Anyway, so far we have had the following letters:

1. a letter setting out the changes and giving us the opportunity to stop claiming
2. a letter telling him he needs to register for self-assessment (which he has done)
3. a letter acknowledging his registration and telling him he will soon receive another letter telling him to complete a tax return

So, presumably he'll soon get that fourth one and then there will be letters about what he owes and how to pay it?

I recently got a tax rebate and I got one letter telling me I was due £x, another setting out the calculations and another with the actual cheque in it. I know someone will tell me it's because they all come from different departments, but there must be a better/cheaper/more efficient way.

Really? Why? And what must it all cost?

If you stop being paid CB you are still registered for NI purposes. I bet the amount of additional tax they will gather/CB not paid outweighs the number of letters.

Quite possibly LIZS, but they could do even better by sending fewer letters. Really why the 3rd & 4th ones? And why 3 to pay my rebate?

Yep, they shouldn't write to you at all.

Then you could come back, and whinge about them not keeping you informed.

spectacularly good at wasting money? A few letters?

Get a grip.

Four letters when one would do = 4x the cost, over thousands of people. It is a spectacular amount of waste.

They're a bunch of idiots - I had 4 letters telling me my tax code last year, all different codes & 2 were sent on the same day.

Despite being PAYE I seem to end up owing them cash every bloody year. How hard can it be FFS....

I think YANBU, sounds like a waste to me....

What is the disgusting waste is that companies like Vodaphone get away with paying nowhere near the money they owe in taxes because HMRC don't have the manpower or money to fight the case.

Like all government funded services they have had massive cuts but are expected to do more work with the changes the government has made to CB, tax credits etc.

The letters will be automatically generated at different stages by computer. It isn't like someone is wasting their time typing them for you.

The systems at HMRC are quite cranky and have been like this for years.

I doubt they'll build a new system for some years to come.

They sent one of my rebates to the wrong address 4 times. Had to stop the cheques 4 times! Cost me a lot of time in phone calls walking them through the system to ensure they'd changed my address at the right point, because it had been explained to me on the first call.

Shit admin costs public service across the board.

The Inland Revenue must be fantastic at wasting money, considering they don't exist. It's HMRC now and has been since 2005.

I can tell you why they send so many letters - most of the ones you've mentioned are automatically generated.

Guess who I used to work for...

I do find HMRC very inefficient and I do think they have a habit of duplicating letters.

If you are only marginally over the threshold csn you up pension contributions or gift aid to take you below the 50k? Then you dont lose your cb.
You can complete a declaration online which stops your cb payments if thats what u wish and u will still get your state pension credit.