All Change

 

HMRC is moving from using 0845 to 03-prefix telephone numbers for its helplines.

This, in theory, should reduce the cost to callers of hanging on the telephone.

The new prefix began roll out on 16 April, starting with new numbers for the child benefit and guardian's allowance helplines.

The 0845 numbers will still work for around 18 months.

There is further information at HMRC.

The deadline for the full roll out is expected to be by the end of summer.

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

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Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC's 0845gate

My thanks to John Stokdyk Editor of AccountingWeb for crediting me with playing a small part in outing HMRC's 0845gate:

"Credit Ken Frost for this one    1 thanks

John Stokdyk PM | Wed, 30/01/2013 - 08:31 | Permalink

The inveterate blogger has been banging on about HMRC 0845 numbers for years and highlighted the paragraph in December's NAO report that confirmed the tax department had no oversight into the amounts its telephone supplier was collecting from the helplines.

His persistence may well have filtered through to MPs like Austin Mitchell. Unfortunately, it seems that bad publicity and embarrassment are what it takes to effect meaningful change within the tax department."

Sadly it is the case with mismanaged public sector and private sector organs that the only way to push them to change for the better is to push them in this manner; inept politicians, executives and inept "political managers" only react when a bright light is shone upon their incompetence!

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

Insurance to protect you against the cost of enquiry or dispute with HMRC is available from several sources including Solar Tax Investigation Insurance.

Ken Frost has negotiated a 10% discount on any polices that may suit your needs.

However, neither Ken Frost nor HMRCISSHITE either endorses or recommends their services.

What is Solar Tax Investigation Insurance?

Solar Tax Investigation Insurance is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Solar Tax Investigation Insurance



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Hanging On The Telephone

I was gemused to read on the Economia members' page of Linkedin this post from Gavin Williams last month, concerning a phone call to HMRC:

"On a recent call to HMRC, only this time using the number advised for callers from abroad, I got through to a human being within 30 seconds.

In the spirit of keeping it up I congratulated the revenue on their customer service improvements.

Response: 'we are aware of the problem and it will be fixed soon. Callers from the UK will not be able to use the international number.' "

As I noted yesterday, it's almost as though HMRC is developing a sense of humour/irony!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise



Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Hanging On The Telephone

My thanks to the loyal reader who posted a link to the above video, which shows a recent encounter between the Grande Dame (Lesley Strathie) and the Treasury Select Committee on 16 March 2011.

The Grande Dame was being questioned about the quantity of different phone numbers that HMRC have for contacting them, and the fact that they are 0845.

The Grande Dame failed to give any deadlines for reducing the number of lines, or switching from the more expensive 0845 numbers.

The issue wrt 0845 has been around for a number of years, I commented on it in 2008 and again in 2009. One anonymous commentator at the time noted that the 0845 numbers are free (along with various comments that this site was shite etc:). That being the case why does the Treasury Select Committee say that they are not free, and why did Strathie not correct them?

In the video Strathie states (with a degree of exasperation) that HMRC do not make any money from the 0845 numbers. As I noted in 2009 I have no reason to disbelieve this statement. However, it is possible that Cable and Wireless (who provide the service) offset part of the fees that they charge HMRC with the revenue stream from the 0845 numbers.

That of course is purely speculation on my part, as I have not seen the agreement between C&W and HMRC.

That aside, do watch and enjoy the video; Strathie is absolutely hopeless.

Tax does have to be taxing.

UK EXPATS: Reduce tax on UK Pensions
HMRC QROPS provider. Unlock your UK pension and access a 25% lump sum today.

Quote ID code "ABC" when contacting a QROPS specialist.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Hanging On The Telephone II

I see that a whistleblower has told The Mail on Sunday that HMRC have issued orders earlier this month for call centre operators to handle incoming calls in a way that will make them last around three minutes longer.

All very well, except that as I noted in 2008 HMRC numbers are 0845.

According to Which? a 10-minute call from a BT landline to a normal geographic line costs about 40p at most, while the same call to 0845 number could cost up to 60p (50% higher).

HMRC state that they do not receive money from their phone service provider (Cable and Wireless).

I am sure that they don't.

However, it is more than likely that within their agreement with C&W their is a clause that states part of the revenue that C&W earns from calls should be used to offset the fees it charges HMRC.

I guess the cost of a phone call to HMRC is what one might call a stealth tax?

Tax does have to be taxing.

Professional Cover Against the Threat of Costly TAX and VAT Investigations

What is TAXWISE?

TAXWISE is a tax-fee protection service that will pay up to £75,000 towards your accountant's fees in the event of an HM Revenue & Customs full enquiry or dispute.

To find out more, please use this link Taxwise

Tax Investigation for Dummies, by Nick Morgan, provides a good and easy to read guide for anyone caught up in an HMRC tax investigation. A must read for any Self Assessment taxpayer.

Click the link to read about: Tax Investigation for Dummies

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Silly Billies!

Having warned us all of the dangers of responding to unsolicited emails, claiming to be from HMRC (in reality coming from scammers), HMRC are now getting in on the act and are sending unsolicited texts and voicemail messages.

Never respond to an unsolicited text, voicemail or email (whether it seems to be from HMRC or not).

HMRC just don't seem to be able to get their heads around data security/scamming risks.

Source Director of Finance:

"PKF Accountants & business advisers is warning individuals not to respond to HM Revenue & Custom’s (HMRC) latest attempts to contact taxpayers by text or automated voice messages to save money.

Just two weeks after issuing warnings about the latest identity theft scams perpetrated by fraudsters claiming to be HMRC, the Revenue announced on Monday that it is to try contacting taxpayers by automated voicemail messages and text message.

Matt Coward, Director of Personal Tax at PKF, says: “We are urging individuals and businesses not to respond to any of these sort of messages as it is just not safe”.

On its website, HMRC has warned taxpayers to only respond to a text or automated message that quotes specific telephone numbers – 0191 225 5348 for tax or 0845 300 3900 for tax credits issues.

Coward commented, “How is anyone receiving a text or call purporting to be from HMRC to know whether or not it really is from the tax authorities?

Perhaps the only giveaway that it is a genuine number, is that the tax helpline always seems to be engaged – a fraudster would at least want to answer your call!

But, ultimately, does HMRC really expect every recipient to spend time digging around on the Revenue website to check out that the response number is genuine?”

Coward continued, “I know that HMRC is duty bound to try to save money and to look at all communication technologies, but this is clearly a waste of time. I suspect that most people will simply put down the phone as soon as they realise that the call is automated. With text messages, few will expect to receive one from HMRC so, one hopes, they would treat it with the utmost suspicion.

“If HMRC wants to try out these technologies they should do it via an “opt in” system and the messages should carry some form of personalised accreditation so that taxpayers who have registered, know they are genuine. But in my opinion, HMRC should simply use the funds spent on such exercises to clear its huge backlog of ordinary post from those taxpayers who have taken the trouble to contact them by letter."

Tax does have to be taxing.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

HMRC Bans Sellotape

You couldn't make this up!

Source Citywire:

"I nearly fell of my chair with laughter last week when I was asked by Alliance Trust to have some forms CA1550 and CA 1544 re-signed because they were not double sided and they were saying HMRC would not accept them on single sheets!

Checking the date and realising it was not All Fools Day I rang the Revenue thinking that Alliance Trust had got something wrong, only to be told: 'the machines we have cannot recognise a single sheet and, yes, we prefer these forms to be double sided, and the way to overcome this is not to use Sellotape or staples but to go and buy some Scotch Magic tape and stick the two sheets together and then that will be fine'!

'Oh by the way if you were to use Sellotape it will melt from the heat of the scanner and could jam the machine!'

Whilst I want to be as green as I can and use less paper if at all possible at this moment the laser printer we have is fairly new and does not do duplex printing. Yes, I could spend several minutes faffing around and printing one page at a time but do not have the time to do this as it is not cost effective.

I wonder how many thousands of pounds HMRC spent on the state-of-the-art scanner that cannot recognise a single sided document!

I have studied both forms and cannot see anywhere in the instructions that these forms must be double sided. I wonder which page of the pension legislation does it say it has to be! Needless to say I have asked for the forms to be returned and I will get a roll of Scotch Magic Tape to make them double sided.

I hope you find this as amusing as I did, though at first I was not amused as you might expect!

If you want to check it out speak with the Revenue help line on 0845 9150150

I wonder if any other advisers have encountered this problem - or any other examples of ridiculous bureaucratic requirements from government departments or providers?

Andrew Warwick is partner at Absolute Financial Services LLP in Solihull."

Tax does have to be taxing.

HMRC Is Shite (www.hmrcisshite.com), also available via the domain www.hmrconline.com, is brought to you by www.kenfrost.com "The Living Brand"

Hanging On The Telephone

The consumer magazine Which? has named and shamed over 30 organisations that are using 0870 or 0845 customer-service numbers to profit from their callers.

Which? is calling for all companies to switch their helplines and technical support lines from expensive numbers to cheaper 03, 0800 or geographic numbers.

Which? said a 10-minute call from a BT landline to a normal geographic line costs about 40p at most while the same call to 0845 number could cost up to 60p (50% higher).

I looked at the list, and saw that HMRC does not feature on it.

Great!

Unfortunately this appears to be an omission on the part of Which?, as all the documentation that I have from HMRC gives 0845 numbers for phone queries (as indeed does the HMRC website).

Maybe the call costs are tax deductible?

Tax does have to be taxing.

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