Wednesday 6 August 2014

Tax Advice For Pensioners? - Sod Off!

Tony Hazell, writing in the FT, has issued a heartfelt plea for people (pensioners in particular) to be given some help by the state wrt filling in and understanding the ever more complex tax forms that are being spewed out by HMRC.
"I am currently helping a pensioner who in the space of a few months was sent a tax rebate, then an overdue tax demand and then asked to make a payment on account.

She is now owed several thousand pounds by HMRC, but the initial error stemmed from a mistake she made in filling in her tax return. This was compounded by another error when she did not understand how to account for tax HMRC was already collecting through her code. 

The whole affair has caused her untold stress.

The difficulty is that as more people are forced to fill in self-assessment forms, there will inevitably be more mistakes. Yet HMRC is itself under financial strain and does not appear to have the resources to help those who need it.

Advice services are springing up everywhere for pensions and investments, but I see no sign of government-sponsored help for those struggling to understand their tax.

This lady was not a tax dodger, she was simply confused and could not afford to pay an accountant to sort out the form for her.
If this government and its successors plan to continue dragging ever more pensioners into self-assessment, then it must make sure HMRC has the resources and training to help those who struggle to understand its forms."
Sadly this plea will fall on deaf ears, as I noted wrt HMRC's Building Our Future strategy, the policy of HMRC and the government is for pensioners to be told to sod off!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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5 comments:

  1. HMRC? A department in chaos that has slithered from one crisis to the next while continuing to treat it's staff as second rate citizens in an institutionalised failing that is a world wide disgrace.
    However, should we blame HMRC when it is only reflecting the world outside it from banking and political sleaze to the ability of a UK non-dom to buy his way out of a criminal bribery case (so predictable)?
    The old style civil service will never be seen again, and with its demise went any semblance of ethics and morals along with pride in a job well done.
    Feel sorry for those still, even now, trying to do a good job, but nothing but contempt for the management above.

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  2. Believe me the contempt from the work face to the headless chickens above is most definitely evident. A dreadful place to work in, I know I work there. Homer and her cronies has brought her cancer to a department that was once maybe not revered but respected, now its seen as a joke and the epitome of mismanagement, incompetence and dogged stubborness to refuse to acknowledge when something that is so plainly wrong and carry on regardless of the dire consequences. I'm hoping I can get through the next 8 years before I rub my hand of the whole sorry business. I feel a genuine fear for those left.

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  3. I used to work there, but thankfully, no longer. They are joint worst for staff stress with the DfT. As you will know, the management are incompetent beyond belief. Unfortunately for those that remain, common purpose beliefs combined with the ludicrous application of Lean/Pacesetters manufacturing methodology make things progressively worse. The combination of bullying oppressive management and poor working conditions - staff wearing coats and scarves in winter because the office is so cold but one example, simply illustrates that it remains a cap way for the majority of staff to earn a pittance. Not sure of the true numbers, but most of the AA and AO staff will be on or close to being in receipt of benefits in some shape or for.
    The truth has already been absorbed by a variety of M.P's including those within the PAC and the NAO. PCS has been totally useless despite knowledge of the breaking of civil and criminal laws by management. It has been left to individual staff to highlight the reality of life in HMRC.
    For anyone left in the bad place called HMRC the worst is yet to come as nobody out in the real world can be bothered about you.
    What a sorry mess.

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  4. I am afraid that you are right and nobody cares..
    BOF event. 'those that chose to come with us on our journey though I know its not for evryone' or words to that effect.. ( that is anyone who is extremely resilant/ I would probably called thick skinned and wants to get on and the extent of anybody in the way....or perhaps want a career ( Thats fair enough you have to manage in this worlld but at the extent of bullying your staff) . I just wonder when we get rid of all the people that are not these wonder people and get all these dynamic people leader people in who will actually fo the work especially the lower type lackey jobs that need to be done?.

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  5. There are more skeletons in cupboards at HMRC than in the Haunted House at Disneyworld. Labels on the skeletons include nepotism, bullying, harassment, corruption, lawbreaking, waste, common purpose, innefficiency, discrimination, contempt and liars, to name but a few that have been raised here and elsewhere.

    For an organisation tasked with protecting as well as colectomy the revenue of the UK and EU it is staggering to think that this situation has arisen let alone continues.

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