It seems that it not just "Joe Public" who has trouble getting through to HMRC, even professional tax advisers are having problems.
The FT reports that Sue Moore, associate director for Baker Tilly Tax and Accounting, has been struggling to get hold of anyone at HMRC.
"We're having difficulties when dealing with the HMRC. It would seem that most offices are eight weeks behind dealing with post. When you telephone it is just the call centre and if you want to speak to somebody actually dealing with the case, that is almost impossible. All this was before the cuts in the department spending.
Everybody is affected by the delay. Issues take longer to resolve and cost the clients more in professional fees as we have to keep chasing HMRC. Working on a case is very inefficient as we have to pick up the threads of the case after several months' delay."
Still, at least they make some money out of the extra time spent chasing HMRC; a portion of this extra revenue then goes as tax to HMRC.
Everyone's a winner, except for the hapless taxpayer!
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Why should agents be given a dedicated line? Make them wait the same as the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteAny extra expense incurred by dealing with HMRC should be claimed in the tax return, under entertainment.
Any extra expense incurred by dealing with HMRC should be claimed in the tax return, under entertainment.
ReplyDelete12 July 2010 11:44
I never looked at dealing with hmrc as entertainment, but I can see its going that way.
"Issues take longer to resolve and cost the clients more in professional fees..."
ReplyDeleteI wonder if she succeeded in keeping the smirk off her face when she said this. Or did she phone it in from the company yacht moored off Juan Les Pins?
I doubt she was being sarcastic. No client would believe the time it takes to resolve issues with HMRC, you certainly couldn't bill it all and expect to keep the client.
ReplyDelete"All this was before the cuts in the department spending."
ReplyDeleteHmm, that's a rather disingenuous (and incorrect) statement.
Once Customs & Excise and the Inland Revenue were smashed together, the cuts began. We have had additional cuts for the last 5 years. This latest round of 'austerity measures' isn't the first for us.
Neither the previous Labour government, nor the current ConDem coalition are prepared to invest the money needed to collect the nation's taxes, pay appropriate benefits, etc.
You get what you pay for.
Baker Tilly are probably one of those accountants that hasn't caught on to the fact that post is sent all over the place under the backwards-lean environment (that the new PAYE Service largely facilitated to the nth degree - but is generally not customer friendly in the way HMRC implemented it) and send letters along the lines of 'we refer to our previous letter' which once you've traced the letter from 150 miles away says 'we refer to our previous letter and await a reply' but give no indication as to what was said in the previous letter.
ReplyDeleteBaker Tilly are probably one of those accountants that hasn't caught on to the fact that post is sent all over the place under the backwards-lean environment (that the new PAYE Service largely facilitated to the nth degree - but is generally not customer friendly in the way HMRC implemented it) and send letters along the lines of 'we refer to our previous letter' which once you've traced the letter from 150 miles away says 'we refer to our previous letter and await a reply' but give no indication as to what was said in the previous letter.
ReplyDeleteBelieve me we hate it as much as you do. Trying to deal with a customers case is now almost impossible without the most herculean effort. All post must go to a central postroom, where it will lay until someone gets around to opening it - judging by the backlog - around ten days. It will then be sent to customer correspondence centres to be dealt with EVEN IF IT IS CLEARLY ADDRESSED to me personally with my actual office address on it. It will then take ten to twelve weeks to find me - and thats in the 25% of cases that actually DO get to me. The only way I can give even a modicum of service is to operate by telephone and fax. And if the bosses found out I would probably be hauled over the coals for it. WE want to do a proper job I promise you. We just are not actually allowed to. We were sold UNWORKABLE systems (LEAN, Pacesetter, MPPC) by private consultants on hundreds of thousends in fees,and now the chickens are coming home to roost.
ReplyDelete