HMRC's New AI Tool

Millions to get faster, easier access to government support with new AI tool

GOV.UK Chat is now available in the GOV.UK app – a new AI tool that lets people ask questions in plain language and get clear, reliable answers instantly. 

GOV.UK Chat – a new AI tool in the GOV.UK app – lets people ask questions in plain language and get clear, reliable answers instantly

Instead of calling a helpline or getting lost searching through 80,000 web pages, people can now access reliable government information faster

Whether it’s parents checking childcare, young people finding apprenticeships or retirees understanding their entitlements, GOV.UK Chat helps people quickly find support and save money

People across the UK can now get quick and easy help to navigate government services and save money – from information on accessing funded childcare to buying a first home and pensions – as a new AI tool launches in the GOV.UK App.

Source gov.uk 

Apparently you can ask it tax questions.

Give it a whirl, and let us know what you think.

I would caution you not to make any tax decisions based on what it tells you though! 

 

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC’s Latest Student Loan Balls-Up

 

HMRC’s Latest Student Loan Balls-Up: 30,000 Graduates Overcharged Thanks to Taxman’s Glitches

Morning, you poor graduates still paying off your student loans while wondering why the hell you bothered going to university in the first place. Just when you thought HMRC couldn’t cock things up any more spectacularly, they’ve gone and done it again.

The taxman, in partnership with the Student Loans Company, has admitted that over 30,000 graduates have been overcharged on their Plan 2 student loans due to errors in how earnings data was recorded and interest was calculated. Another 41,000 were undercharged, making a grand total of around 71,000 affected borrowers. These cock-ups stretch back years — some were first spotted in 2022 — yet only now are they finally sorting it.

The mistakes involve incorrect income reporting (especially where people had both PAYE and self-assessment income) and technical glitches in how interest rates were applied. Result? Thousands of graduates have been repaying more than they should have for years. HMRC and SLC say they’ll automatically correct the balances and issue refunds where overpayments occurred. No compensation, of course — just “sorry, here’s your money back… eventually.”

This is the same shambolic organisation that:

• Can’t answer the phone without an hour of hold music
• Harasses 93-year-old terminally ill veterans over returns they’ve already filed
• Spends £186 million to recover £44 million on the Loan Charge
• Forces accountants to stop using automation because their own APIs are useless

…yet somehow they’re trusted to accurately track earnings and calculate student loan repayments for hundreds of thousands of young people.

Graduates already face frozen repayment thresholds, massive debt, and the feeling they’ve been sold a pup by the higher education system. Now HMRC quietly admits it’s been taking too much of their money for years. Brilliant.

This isn’t just incompetence — it’s systemic failure. While they blow hundreds of millions on flashy AI systems and hire valuation officers for the mansion tax raid, they can’t even get basic earnings data right for student loan deductions.

Tax does have to be taxing.
But overcharging 30,000 graduates for years on their student loans due to avoidable errors, then shrugging and saying “we’ll fix it eventually”? That’s not taxing — that’s theft by incompetence, plain and simple.

Check your statements, graduates. And if you’ve been overcharged, make sure you get every penny back. Because with HMRC, if you don’t chase it, they’ll happily keep it.

Amazon “Graduate Loan Victim Survival Kit” Suggestions
(affiliate links – because you’re already skint)

• Large Calculator – for checking HMRC’s dodgy maths
• “Overcharged by HMRC” Mug – morning coffee of righteous anger
• Noise-Cancelling Headphones – for when you ring them (good luck)
• Heavy-Duty Shredder – for their next threatening letter
• Strong Drink – you’ve earned it

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC's Screen-Scraping Crackdown

 

HMRC's Screen-Scraping Crackdown: Accountants Get Threatened With Access Block Because HMRC's Own Systems Are Still Shite

Greetings, you poor accountants and bookkeepers already drowning in quarterly MTD bollocks, endless client queries, and HMRC's legendary incompetence. Just when you thought the taxman couldn't make your life any more miserable, they've decided to kick you squarely in the automation.

HMRC has ramped up its war on screen-scraping and browser automation tools that accountants have been using to actually get work done. In an updated policy paper, they've made it crystal clear: using any form of screen scraping, robotic process automation, or browser automation to access client data via agent accounts is prohibited. Get caught? They’ll block your entire Agent Services Account (ASA), meaning you lose access to all your clients’ HMRC data in one fell swoop.

Why are accountants resorting to these tools in the first place? Because HMRC’s own digital services are still a complete and utter shambles. Their APIs are limited, clunky, unreliable, and don’t cover everything accountants need to do efficiently for clients. So firms turned to automation to plug the massive gaps left by HMRC’s half-arsed “digital transformation”. Now HMRC is punishing them for it.

This is classic HMRC hypocrisy on steroids:

• They can’t build proper, reliable APIs that actually work for the profession.
• They spend £175 million on flashy AI from Quantexa while basic agent access remains painful.
• They force everyone into Making Tax Digital and quarterly reporting.
• Then they throw their toys out of the pram when accountants find clever ways to work around the department’s own incompetence.

Accountants aren’t doing this for fun — they’re doing it to save time, reduce errors, and actually provide a decent service to clients. Now they face the very real risk of suddenly being locked out of the system they rely on daily. Brilliant.

This crackdown is yet another example of HMRC’s “do as I say, not as I do” attitude. They demand flawless digital compliance from everyone else while their own systems remain stuck somewhere between 2005 and total chaos.

Tax does have to be taxing.
But deliberately making accountants’ lives harder because you can’t be arsed to build proper tools, then threatening to lock them out when they improvise? That’s not taxing — that’s petty, obstructive, and typical HMRC bullying.

Sort your own house out before you start smashing everyone else’s tools.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Money Laundering Red Flag

 

The question here is it only the cab company that looks dodgy, or the council as well?

Over to you HMRC!

Source. 

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Boss Behind Customer Service Meltdowns Gets Gongs

 

HMRC Boss Behind Customer Service Meltdowns Gets Gongs – Angela MacDonald Made Companion of the Order of the Bath

Morning, you poor battered taxpayers still stuck on endless hold, waiting years for refunds, getting chased for returns you’ve already sent, and drowning in quarterly MTD shite. While you’re struggling just to get basic service, HMRC’s top brass are busy polishing their medals.

In the King’s Birthday Honours 2026, Angela MacDonald — Deputy Chief Executive and Second Permanent Secretary at HMRC — has been made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. That’s right. The woman who has presided over some of the worst customer service disasters in HMRC’s long and inglorious history is being rewarded with one of the highest honours in the land.

This is the same Angela MacDonald who, as Director General of Customer Services and then Deputy Chief Executive, has overseen:

• Record helpline waiting times (often over an hour)
• Phone lines slammed shut on Self Assessment deadline day
• Massive backlogs and two-year refund delays
• Pensioners (including terminally ill veterans) being harassed over returns they’ve already filed
• A general collapse in basic competence while the department demands perfection from the rest of us

Public dissatisfaction with HMRC has been climbing for years, according to government figures. No wonder. Yet instead of being held accountable, she gets a fancy title and a nice ribbon.

This is classic Civil Service failure culture at its finest: bugger up spectacularly, preside over chaos, then get promoted and honoured for “services to public administration.” Meanwhile, the little people get penalty points, £100 fines for filing a day late, and threatening letters that arrive like clockwork.

MacDonald joined HMRC in 2017 and has been deeply involved in operations and customer service transformation ever since. Transformation? The only thing that’s been transformed is the level of public fury.

While they blow £175 million on AI toys, spend £186m to recover £44m on the Loan Charge, and hire 1,000 valuation officers to raid nice houses, the basics remain an absolute disgrace. And the person in charge of a big chunk of that mess gets a gong.

Tax does have to be taxing.
But rewarding the architects of HMRC’s customer service meltdown with royal honours while ordinary taxpayers — especially the elderly and vulnerable — are treated like dirt? That’s not taxing. That’s a national insult and a damning indictment of the whole rotten system.

Well done, Angela. Enjoy the honour. The rest of us will enjoy another year of hold music and brown envelopes.

HMRC Is Shite, Angela MacDonald honour, King's Birthday Honours farce, customer service meltdown, Companion of the Order of the Bath, HMRC incompetence rewarded, taxpayer contempt, Tax does have to be taxing

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

93-Year-Old Royal Navy Veteran Harassed by HMRC

 

93-Year-Old Terminally Ill Royal Navy Veteran Harassed by HMRC Over a Return He’s Already Filed – This is Utterly Disgraceful

Greetings, you decent, hard working folk who’ve paid your dues all your lives and just want to be left in peace. If you thought HMRC had scraped the bottom of the barrel with their cruelty, they’ve just gone and smashed right through it.

A 93-year-old widower, a proud Royal Navy veteran, and now terminally ill, has written to the Telegraph in despair. He is being relentlessly harassed by HMRC for a Self Assessment tax return he already completed and submitted.

After filing his 2024-25 return in May 2025, he received a letter claiming he hadn’t submitted one for the 2023-24 tax year. He complained, provided proof, and thought that was the end of it. It wasn’t. The threatening letters keep coming. The stress is giving this dying old man sleepless nights in what should be his final, peaceful months.

This isn’t a one-off admin glitch. This is systemic incompetence combined with institutional heartlessness. A man who served his country in the Royal Navy during some of the most dangerous periods of the 20th century is now being tormented by pen-pushers in Newcastle who can’t even keep track of a simple tax return they’ve already received.

Meanwhile, the same department:

• Spends £186 million trying to recover just £44 million on the Loan Charge
• Hangs up the phones on Self Assessment deadline day
• Forces quarterly MTD reporting on struggling self-employed people
• Blows £175 million on flashy AI systems while the basics remain a total shambles

But sure, let’s terrorise a 93-year-old terminally ill veteran who owes them nothing.

This story should make every single person in Britain furious. We expect our tax authority to be efficient and firm when needed. We do not expect them to behave like bullying bailiffs toward elderly, dying heroes who’ve already done everything asked of them.

The sheer lack of basic humanity here is staggering. A man facing the end of his life should not be losing sleep because some incompetent jobsworth at HMRC can’t find a return on their broken system.

Tax does have to be taxing.

But hounding a 93-year-old terminally ill Royal Navy veteran who’s already filed his return? That’s not taxing — that’s cruel, callous, and utterly contemptible.

HMRC should be ashamed of themselves. And heads should roll.

 

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"