The text of the petition is shown below, and it can be signed via this link.
Stop the closure of the HMRC Enquiry Centre Network
Responsible department: Her Majesty's Treasury
HMRC announced on 14 March that they propose to close all 281 tax enquiry centres in March 2014.
Taxpayers will no longer be able to walk into an enquiry centre to receive free assistance with their tax issues.
Their only alternatives will be to call the contact centre, write in, check for information online, contact the voluntary sector or in very exceptional circumstances have a face to face meeting with a mobile advisor.
Please sign this to get HMRC to halt the removal of this basic customer service. This certainly does not gel with HMRC's Vision to "make it easy for our customer to get things right"
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Sorry, good idea, but it's not going to work.
ReplyDeleteTime after time, Excom have been asked the following question by staff, and time after time Excom have given the same answer:
Q. If the pilot isn't a success, will the Enquiry Centres that have already been closed be re-opened?
A. The pilot *will* be a success.
The fix is in...
wot about the deaf and those with no internet? HMRC discrimination?
ReplyDeleteNo they discriminate against everyone.
(So don't be deaf and live in the outer hebrides, or cumbria
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or be on benefits!
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or over 70 years old)
there are none so blind as those that cannot see...
ReplyDeleteExcom heads stuck in places too dark for light to exist...
Not so - they all think that that's where the sun shines out of.
ReplyDeleteA bit late too for those of us who live out in the sticks; e.g., English/Welsh border. The last time I tried to visit one, it was boarded up. The time before that, the other local office had no tax inspectors available, just a few junior staff. When I asked something fairly technical they pointed to a telephone and told me to contact the, er, HMRC telephone enquiry centre. Aaargh.
ReplyDeleteAnother point occurring to me is this .... will taxpayers stop paying rent on these premises if they are closed or do the lease payments to Mapeley, the tax haven-based(!) owner of all HMRC property, still have to be made for the entire term of the lease?
HMRC Enquiry Centres have short term contracts and quick lease breaks when the building is closed HMRC stop paying rent.
DeleteThe only Enq Centres that have closed are the ones in the North East so if you visited one and it was "boarded up" then they will have relocated unfortunately HMRC do not publicise the moves plus Enquiry Centres that are not part of a larger HMRC building do not have inspectors and even those ones are obliged to put you on the telephone, inspectors do not see people face to face in Enq Centres.
"Inspectors do not see people face to face in Enq Centres."
DeleteI used to. I worked in a building which had an enquiry centre and while it wasn't mine to deal with, if an Inspector was needed and nobody else was available I would go down and speak to the taxpayer. It was just part of the job. This was only a couple of years ago.
This is no longer the case if a customer needs to speak to an inspector they use the telephone.
DeleteBet your bottom dollar the balance is tipped towards Mapeley not the taxpayer (customer).
ReplyDeleteAlso, any truth in the rumour that Mapeley can exercise a contractual right to sell-back the buildings to HMRC/HMG?