It seems that, according to UHY Hacker Young, complaints upheld against HMRC have risen by 113% in the last 2 years.
The Adjudicator's Office upheld 446 cases in 2010, 229 in 2009 and 108 in 2008.
Roy Maugham, tax partner at UHY Hacker Young, is quoted by the FT that the increase was a result of "deteriorating levels of service at the Revenue..The level of service is a huge concern..Even getting a response to a simple letter of inquiry can now take months."
Phil Berwick, director of tax investigations at law firm McGrigors, believes that this is but "the tip of the iceberg...
There are many more people who feel aggrieved but who don't want to take matters up with the Revenue".
He added:
"There have been significant cuts at HMRC over the last few years.
And it's not just a numbers problem – the people they are losing are also the most-experienced people. This is a recipe for disaster."
Patrick O'Brien, a spokesman for the Revenue, said that only "a tiny fraction of a per cent of those customers find it necessary to go to the Adjudicator".
So that's alright then:)
Tax does have to be taxing.
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The idiots at the top, and those who commissioned the merger should be held to account for this.
ReplyDeleteThose junior and senior management types who have adopted an ignorant and agressive style of management should have their chops slapped also.
Nothing will change. Those making the decisions, the MP's, want a cheaper service. As long as they can use statistics to show things aren't all bad they will continue down this road until it can be broken up and sold to the private sector.
ReplyDeleteThen it will be a case of the taxman may have destroyed your life but 97.5% of calls were answered within 3 minutes. Success.
Erm..they WANT rid of the most experienced members of staff. It's not an accident -it's policy. They are the ones who try and serve taxpayers like they deserve to be served. This is NOT in line with current thinking. Briefly, this can be summarised as follows - Do it yourself, preferably online. If you get it wrong, it's your fault. We take no responsibility for anything -you should have known better.
ReplyDeleteI agree with 1 March 2011 19:10
ReplyDeleteHMRC are trying to reach an increase of 200% complaints, so they are just over half way there.
If HMRC are actually aiming at an increase of 200% for complaints they will probably screw that up as well.
ReplyDeleteLaughing at 22:26 and good point from 00:50
ReplyDeleteWell whatever Gordon Brown is responsible for it doesn't surprise me one bit, in the Mr men characters, there should Mr Brown's face on Mr Greedy, because he is a Greedy M.P.But they're all the same,Labour,Liberal,Tory, whatever party they're not in it for the people, they're in it for themselves, to see how much money they can POCKET out of the tax-payer.
ReplyDelete