Friday, 5 March 2010
OCD
Oh dear it would appear that HMRC has had an outbreak of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
That at least would appear to be the conclusion to be drawn from the report in the Cambridge News, concerning the letters sent by HMRC to Sharone Freed (director of Freed Fencing).
The letters from HMRC were demands for tax.
Fair enough!
Except that Mr Freed received 52 envelopes from HMRC, each containing 4 letters demanding sums ranging from £100 to £3K (grand total £39K).
Mr Freed is appealing the fines, which have been suspended pending a final decision.
HMRC told the Cambridge News:
"Incorrectly issued penalties are not the result of a system problem but failure to correctly follow procedure - this is being put right."
Surely the automated system, if working correctly, would have flagged a "procedural error"?
Tax does have to be taxing.
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So it is another case of people not following procedures correctly.
ReplyDeleteYawn!!
So will things be better once all the staff who do not follow the procedures are removed during the staff cutbacks. And if things do not improve will the people running HMRC then admit they have failed and resign or go off on long term sick.
It's the lack of money spent on decent IT. Together with staff not following correct procedures, this is because of lack training & experience.
ReplyDeleteThese are the new centralised teams,the ones who ARE keeping their jobs. It's the rest of us who know what we are doing, that are being removed due to staff cutbacks.
I use to be a support officer for a VAT Appeals team.
ReplyDeleteThen I was told to piss off into the corner and staple some bits of paper together, (and from there hopefully piss off out of the building)
My replacement (brought in from the Revenue) hadn't a clue and then the Appeals team was made smaller and then tiny.
Im surprised anything regarding penalties or Appeals get issued properly at all.
Mr Freed getting 52 envelopes is probably the way its gonna be from now on.
Welcome to my world and there are many more of us too. They gave the jobs we have the experience for, to someone inexperienced. To add insult to injury, due to budget cut backs they won't even give out electric staplers to do all this stapling. I also get to de-staple things someone else has stapled, dunno what to do with bits.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like it is CIS penalties. The system generates an automatic £100 penalty per month for monthly returns not being submitted by the due date. This is why the amount is so much. It is as a result of bad administration on the part of the taxpayer not a system problem
ReplyDelete".. due to budget cut backs they won't even give out electric staplers to do all this stapling. I also get to de-staple things someone else has stapled, dunno what to do with bits."
ReplyDeleteWhen I first saw an HMRC Officer with an electric stapler I knew the world had gone mad. Their work rate was terrible. Public money on silly toys! Anyone approving that nonsense should be fired.
platon
ReplyDelete"So it is another case of people not following procedures correctly"... and "It's the lack of money spent on decent IT"...
The above sums up the nightmare that is the new penalties system. We still don't have a proper IT system and are forced to use a range of "mandatory" spreadsheets, as an interim solution, designed by somebody with an IQ of a deckchair. Instructions written by people who have no practical experience of how to do the job. Head office guidance that more resembles Vogon poetry than anything meaningful/intelligible/workable. Managers incapable of joined-up thinking (and joined-up writing) who have their own interpretations and agendas that differ from everyone else's... and no wonder the staff don't know whether they are coming or going. It's farking bedlam... Duck Soup in fact! Meantime we're being beaten with a stick for having too many open cases with serious delays. Staff going off sick with stress and bullied into submission with the constant threat of C&D hanging over them like the sword of Damacles... because a fax received out of hours was left unattended on the fax machine overnight, and a PCS union inundated with members' grievance cases against senior management. But hey, it's not all bad because it all fits with Gordon Brown's autocratic, bullying leadership style and vision of business efficiency (i.e. the spreadsheet mentality). Come back Guy Fawkes, all is forgiven.
When I first saw an HMRC Officer with an electric stapler I knew the world had gone mad. Their work rate was terrible. Public money on silly toys!
ReplyDeleteHave you tried stapling stencils all day instead of doing real work you are experienced in ?? We will all be off with RSI at this rate (if the mind numbing down grading of our jobs doesn't get to us first)
Duck soup, yep, really sums it all up.