To despise HMRC

[Neededanewuserhandle]

I have a job and I am receiving a small regular pension. The total is about £56K. HMRC has issued me with new tax codes - D1 for each. This means I must pay 45% tax on everything. It is clearly wrong, but II cannot get through to anyone to get them to correct their error. They refuse to accept any contact except paper letter or phone call. They are such a hateful incompetent arrogant organisation.

Agree they’re awful!! Try to call their self assessment line and yiu queue for over an hour and then get cut off. Call back and they don’t take anymore calls. Terrible. You can’t email self assessment either and their chat system doesn’t work too. Frustrating.

🙄

I'm so pleased OP, and no I don't think you were being aggressive - I was literally coming out in a sweat reading your thread!!

Glad you got it sorted OP.

It's a nightmare of a system. I've just had weeks of attempts to get through to HMRC myself about a tax refund I was due and also ended up having to call (repeatedly) because their web form which said I'd get the refund into my bank account within 2-4 weeks failed to initiate anything of the kind

FWIW, you also weren't rude or aggressive to anyone.

It's rubbish - I can completely see why people get frustrated and annoyed (and I don't think you have to get all faux 'I must be being really stupid' with them either).

The whole PAYE system is set up to be frustrating - last tax year DH got made redundant and (later in the same year) received a bonus. The complications that has caused to his tax code have been ridiculous - he does an annual tax return anyway so the easiest thing would have been to sort it all out at the end of the tax year, but they always try and sort it out via PAYE which ends up being about 3-4 months behind and he is now stuck in a ridiculous cycle of paying back tax, then they realise he's paid too much, so paying less and then they think he's underpaying and the cycle starts again. Farcical.

Agreed, OP, never had a positive experience and found incompetence heaped upon incompetence!

I don't think op should pretend she's being thick either and do all that stuff either and isn't what I was advising her to do just in case my post read like that.

It's not rude or aggressive to point out someone has been incorrect, op did nothing wrong and my friend did nothing wrong.

They shouldn't have to pretend they doubt themselves. Or apologise for someone else being incorrect. I should have added to my post that it just seems that some staff in some places (healthcare being another) get defensive or take it very personally and blame the other persons communication style as rude or aggressive instead of acknowledging and apologising for their own mistake and moving on.

I've been self employed for around 12 years and haven't had to contact them in around 10 years. I remember being able to have the option to speak to a Welsh speaker (in Wales) which they've done away with, but even without that the time to get through was nothing like it is now. Several times last week I was on hold for the best part of an hour and had to give up because of work. Today I've been cut off after 27 minutes. I can't make head nor tail of the website so really need to speak to someone asap.

I wonder what could have happened over the last 12 years or so 🤔

Every time I ring them I’m always expecting the worst but I’ve found them polite, friendly and helpful in every occasion, even when dealing with late filing penalties…
also, call first thing when they open as it’s the least busy time.

always found them helpful and they correct errors quickly usually. Have you rung them or emailed?
Busy time of year for them though. It's all logged though, so if you're being overtaxed on code errors they'll give you a rebate.

It does take a long time to get through- which can be frustrating, but when you do I have always found them helpful and polite. But then I try to be friendly and polite with them. They are not personally responsible for the length of your wait or the tax rules as it is the government who decides on both the rules and the number of staff.

It took 45 minutes to get through to the general helpline just before Easter, and the problem was sorted out in a 10 minute phone call.

'Now sorted out by a helpful person at HMRC - but I shouldn't have had to call.'

Why not? Was it all supposed to magically happen by telepathy??? I swear, people have forgotten how to communicate with one another.

Cuts - like every other public sector organisation. Less staff expected to do more work. IT/online/gov.uk has not filled the gap that was created by "streamlining" and centralising the staff into call centres and effectively de-skilling the "first tier" of people to be call handlers instead of tax experts.

When where HMRC or their predecessors any good? About the time of William Pitt the Younger perhaps?

YANBU to be annoyed.

They were impossible to get through to on the phone for about 4 months last autumn, finally someone on here pointed me to their chat function. It's pretty well hidden on the Government Gateway (can't now remember where it is) but it fixed my issue within 5 minutes when I used it.

This is quite simple to change on your Government Gateway account. I’ve done it in the past when an exam marking job I used to have finished. It was down as income on my assessment. I just changed the earnings from this employer as zero.

You can still opt to speak to someone in Welsh.

Welsh language number - 0300 200 1900

My DD works for a big accountancy firm on VAT, she has to deal with HMRC on a daily basis and says they are absolutely incompetent! She frequently has to point out their own regulations when calling them and at times is on hold for well over an hour.
Over the last 3 years I’ve had to contact HMRC about my personal tax and have generally found them ok.

@EsmeSusanOgg Diolch!!

I tried calling them last week and it took forever to get through. Once l did though, they were helpful.

If anyone her does speak a bit of Welsh, I've just rung the number @EsmeSusanOgg posted and got straight through.

This is all down to the problems communicating online.

In your head, "You are wrong - I don't know where you're getting those figures, but you are wrong" probably has a completely different tone to the one that other people are getting from it. To me, that also sounded pretty aggressive but I appreciate that it probably wasn't sounding that way to you when you wrote it.

They are pretty appalling at times.

A few years ago they kindly issued me a tax code that would have left me with MINUS money each month I've no idea how this was achived but they managed it. Thankfully, my employer decided to stick with the previous years code and after about 4 months HMRC acknowledged their error. THEN they decided that they owed me £1400 which they clearly didn't and I told them so three times. They insisted they did and sent a cheque so Ive bought premium bonds with it. It can sit there until they ask for it back which I'm sure they will eventually.

Because HMRC shouldn't have issued me with the incorrect tax codes in the first place.

Perhaps there was an element of frustration. I am not a tax expert, but I know enough to know I shouldn't be paying 45% tax with no personal allowance on all my income. That poster (who I notice hasn't returned) posted the most ridiculous claim that it was correct and then sought to back it up with an irrelevant link and claimed to be some kind of tax expert - it was like someone telling me to put water in the fuel filler of my car - so obviously wrong that 99% of people would know. If I was aggressive to that person, then I must confess that I don't really care as their contribution was patronising, totally incorrect and frankly, just nonsense. Maybe this is like when exDP used to tell me off for being rude on the phone when I was called by scammers - generally I am polite to people, but I see no need to be polite to criminals.