Friday 18 January 2008

Cock Ups Continue

Cock Ups ContinueOh dear, another day, another cock up.

Poor old HMRC, it just can't seem to get its act together these days.

It seems that Her Majesty's Customs and Revenue (HMRC) has had to apologise (again!) to taxpayers. This time the tens of thousands of self-assessment taxpayers were on the receiving end of the apology, seemingly HMRC did not send them their final payment reminders in December.

Why was that then I wonder?

Down the pub maybe?

Too busy looking for lost data discs?

To add to HMRC's humiliation, it also had to apologise for sending blank payment slips to thousands of people who filed online and have a tax liability.

A computer glitch maybe?

Notwithstanding the above cock ups, HMRC are sticking to the line that taxpayers still have a legal responsibility to pay their bill by the January 31 deadline.

Don't forget that there is also the possibility of a strike on that day.

HMRC issued the following statement:

"Some self-assessment statements due to be sent to customers in December 2007 were not issued. We are also aware that some of those customers have subsequently received one of our general payment reminders (SA309C) with a blank payment slip. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused."

All very well, but do they actually know why they screwed up again?

Have they taken measures to ensure that it won't happen again?

Will they be telling the people who pay their salaries (ie us) why they screwed up?

Will Her Majesty, who has the embarrassment of having her name attached to this ramshackle organisation, be removing her "patronage"?
HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com) is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

2 comments:

  1. Excellent. So it's not just me then. I was hassling HMRC for my Payment reminder in late December, then got the blank forms etc etc. Now finally, on 22nd Jan (dated 15th) arrives the numerated Payslip/reminder I should have had in mid-December. I Googled for 'HMRC "Self Assessment" cock up' and guess what I found!

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  2. I've also had notification last November that my tax code has changed (when it hasn't). There's nothing complicated about my tax code, it's just the basic 522L for 2007-08. Or is it that they quoted the higher bands incorrectly last January? Can't they do anything right?

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