to think tax office contact should be easier!!!!

[Paperdolly]

I'm due a £400plus rebate and received a '800' letter telling me so. I tried to go online to claim it, as advised by the letter. I was sent in loops organising security codes and passwords etc and the site doing a 'whoops- this site is unable to...'

I then tried to get through by phone and the calm robot kept chatting to me about how I may be able to get online for help. HA! 😡

If I can't claim it back now (and I could do with the money) I have to wait for 'sometime in the next two months' for them to slip it into my bank account.

Is this a scam to make claiming my refund sooooo difficult that they hold onto MY/OUR money for two months and gain any interest?

Anyone able to help here?

Are you certain it was a genuine letter? As there are lots of scams like this going around at the moment!

You went via the gov website?

Was this definitely the gov uk website?

I had the same problem trying to sort my dad's tax rebate out a couple of months ago. Logged in with government gateway details, then kept getting an error message saying the website was unable to verify the details etc. Tried ringing, went through what I thought were the right options to speak to someone then got the recorded message about doing it online and gave up! Not helpful to you, I know, but I'm glad I wasn't the only one that struggled, given he'd asked me to help as I'm normally good with that sort of stuff!

That was via the gov.uk website given on the tax rebate letter from HMRC by the way.

I went online for my rebate and had no problems, took 5mins.Didn't get any password hoo-ha. That's odd. Maybe some eejit changed a process that worked fine before.

I'm sure it was genuine as the system to get on the hmrc site for anything tax related is a total nightmare. They had to keep sending me codes through the post.

If you’re owed a £400 rebate it should of course be sent to you. All this nonsense with logging on and setting up a personal tax account (PTA) has come about because the suits “running” HMRC have targets to meet re number of PTA’s opened. Someone came up with the grand idea of notifying refunds to taxpayers, then withholding the money to encourage them to claim via PTA.

If you can ever get through on their helpline, just tell them to get the cheque in the post with no further delay. Don’t put up with any nonsense of them “needing to know” why you won’t open a PTA.......although HMRC’s record on data protection should be reason enough.

See hmrcisshite.blogspot.com. It makes for jolly reading.

Yes it was a genuine letter. There are no offices to charge into. And I know why now!!😡