The Great HMRC Fob Off!

It seems that thousands of complaints about incorrect tax bills, codes and unpaid credits are being thrown out by HMRC without investigated by an impartial adjudicator.

Money Mail reports that one in 40 people who have been fobbed off by HMRC has their case heard by an independent adjudicator.

Seemingly people often don’t know they have the right to escalate their complaint to the Adjudicator’s Office, where they can get an impartial hearing. Additionally, people cannot email the Adjudicator's Office.

For why?

HMRC funds the Adjudicator’s Office, and refuses to cover the cost of setting up this service.

I would ask at this point, how can the Adjudicator's Office be independent if it is funded by HMRC?

 

Elaine Clark, managing director of accountancy firm CheapAccounting, is quoted: 

‘HMRC is clearly not doing enough to highlight the adjudicator service to taxpayers. And even those that do know about it often don’t have the energy or expertise to take on that fight.

Many will have been repeatedly stonewalled and are so worn down that they would rather give up and move on — which is worrying because time and time again, HMRC will tell you they are right even when they are wrong.’

Between April 2017 and March 2018 HMRC received 77,410 complaints. Of these, almost four in ten — 39 per cent — were fully upheld in the first instance. A further 15 per cent were partially upheld.

This means 30,190 were resolved fully, leaving 47,220 either only half settled or rejected entirely.

If you are unhappy with the outcome at this stage you can request that HMRC reviews your complaint again. 

Of the complaints referred back to HMRC in the last tax year, 19 per cent were fully upheld. Another 22 per cent were partially upheld.

If all cases that were only partially upheld or rejected completely were referred back to HMRC, it means a further 8,972 complaints were fully upheld at this second stage of the complaints system.

This leaves 38,248 cases where customers received only a partial result or had their complaint thrown out.

It is at this point that HMRC should tell you about your right to escalate your complaint to the independent adjudicator.

However, of the 38,248 complaints not fully upheld in the last tax year, just 943 were referred to the independent Adjudicator’s Office — around one in 40.

Many of these may not have been winnable. But last year the adjudicator upheld around four in ten (39 per cent) of the complaints it dealt with.

In its annual report, the adjudicator says: 

‘There is evidence to suggest that for every customer who complains to an organisation, there are many more who have been treated similarly who do not.’

A spokesman for the Adjudicator’s Office says HMRC could do more to inform customers using its complaints process about how and when to access its service, as well as make it easier for them to do so.

Here is the address you should write to:

The Adjudicator’s Office, 

PO Box 10280, 

Nottingham, 

NG2 9PF 

or call 0300 057 1111 between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

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



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"

Adjudicator Backlog of Tax Cases

The Mail reports that the Adjudicator's Office, which rules on HMRC complaints, has a backlog of 1,028 cases. 

It settled just 970 in 2015-16 — half the 1,850 that were dealt with the year before.

The adjudicator said that while more than half of cases were dealt with in six months, and most within a year, 66 waited for more than a year. 

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



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 Has Limited Appetite For Learning

I have clearly been asleep at the wheel, and missed that in mid September the Adjudicator's Office published its annual report on HMRC for year end 31 March 2015.

It does not make great reading for HMRC:

“limited appetite for reflection and learning from their interaction with customers....

...A failure to embed change may be costly”

The largest proportion of complaints received by the Adjudicator were about tax credits and HMRC’s refusal to write off overpayments. Other complaints included PAYE issues around Extra Statutory Concession A19.

No surprises there then!

Also of particular concern to the Adjudicator was the failure by HMRC staff to consider the circumstances of vulnerable taxpayers, especially where the department had the opportunity to exercise discretion.

Again, sadly this should be of no surprise to loyal readers!

The report contains a number of case studies, which HMRC would be advised to read.


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



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 94% Error Rate

Kudos to HMRC for making so many mistakes wrt tax demands that the Tax Adjudicator found that 94% of those submitted to the Adjudicator were wrong, necessitating HMRC to issue almost £4M in refunds and write-offs together with £250K redress for "poor service".

Judy Clements, head of the adjudicator’s office, said:

“If my office can mediate a complaint, then the department should have been able to resolve that complaint without the customer feeling the need to refer the matter to me.

Customers often compliment the direct personal discussion my staff have with them during the mediation of cases. I feel certain this is the sort of tailored response customers can and should expect from all departments.”

She said she had seen instances where there was “no sense of urgency when making decisions on customer issues” and where HMRC staff “do not appreciate the impact matters may have on individual customers.”

A total of 12,074 enquiries were made to the adjudicator in the year. The majority of cases it took on related to instances where HMRC had sent shock bills to people who had unwittingly underpaid tax. HMRC was found at fault in 94% of these cases, with the taxpayer issued redress.

The Telegraph has published a guide on how to fight your corner with HMRC:

Sometimes mistakes are not corrected for several years. There are rules to ensure fairness in such instances. The debt should be written off under “extra-statutory concession A19” or ESC A19 if three conditions are met: 

- did HMRC make “proper and timely” use of information provided to it; 
- could the taxpayer have “reasonably have believed their tax affairs were in order”; 
- and was notification sent within 12 months of the end of the tax year in question?

HMRC still routinely rejects applications for ESC A19. 

If this happens, you need to fight your case.

First, ask your local tax office to apply ESC A19. If it refuses, file a complaint outlining what happened, when, what effect the error had on you and why you qualify for the concession, and the matter should be put right. For a guide to the concession, see hmrc.gov.uk/esc/esc.htm.

For income tax complaints, call 0300 200 3300 or write to HM Revenue & Customs, Pay As You Earn, PO Box 1970, Liverpool L75 1WX. 

If you are unsatisfied, ask for a “formal review”. If this fails, a second review will provide a final response. The next step is to contact the adjudicator. The service is free and impartial. 

You must write within six months of a final response, providing reasons for complaint and a copy of the final decision letter. Call the adjudicator on 0300 057 1111 or write to The Adjudicator’s Office, PO Box 10280, Nottingham NG2 9PF. If you believe justice has not been done, write to your MP and ask for the matter to be investigated by the Parliamentary Ombudsman, who will look into why the adjudicator rejected your claim.

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



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 Is Infallible

My thanks to Paul Reeves (a loyal reader) who has directed me to case notes published on his site, concerning a five year dispute that one of his clients had with HMRC regarding tax credit overpayments amounting to £5K which HMRC wanted to be repaid immediately.

A satisfactory resolution (stage payments of the overpayment and restitution by HMRC of professional charges) was only found after the case was submitted to the Adjudicator's Office. During the protracted dispute Paul notes that HMRC stuck to the mantra that HMRC does not make mistakes:

"The Tax Credits Office refused at any time, until forced to admit this when the matter went to the Adjudicator’s Office, that they had, or indeed could have, made an error."

He goes on to note:

"Query everything and do not take “no” for an answer. 

Persistence pays!" 

However, he warns:

"Please be advised that when you have received a decision from the Adjudicator’s Office in your favour, if  HMRC do not act in accordance with that decision, there is not much that you can do except make a nuisance of yourself until they finally implement the decision, just to get rid of you."

Has anyone else experienced similar problems with HMRC?

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



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"

Putting Things Right - Where Is The Justice?

My thanks to a loyal reader who gave me permission to publish a letter that she sent to:

- Dan Rogerson

- David Cameron

- Nick Clegg

- Ed Miliband

- Margaret Hodge

- David Gauke

- Lin Homer (e-mail)

- The Adjudicator

- Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman

She won a tribunal against HMRC regarding child benefits and tax credits. However, she is still waiting for HMRC to "put things right" and 13 months after raising the matter with the Adjudicator is still waiting for a result; as the Adjudicator's Office is overwhelmed with casework.

To add insult to injury, having emailed Cameron two weeks ago about the situation, her email was answered by HMRC telling her to raise the matter with the Adjudicator.

Here is the text of her letter, with locations edited out in order to protect her identity.

"Just over 3 years ago my daughter and I fled the controlling clutches of her Police Sergeant father in **** to the edge of *******.

Together with HMRC, he had made life so difficult for us we had no choice other to leave our family home and start a new life hundreds of miles away where the only person I knew was my father.  3 years later and with my daughter now 6 years old life is very pleasant and the battles between her father and me have been resolved, but not without years of heartache, distress, solicitors and tribunals caused by my daughter’s father and the actions of HMRC.

I am writing this letter because, despite having unfinished business with HMRC in waiting for their apology, it has become clear that I am not the only person to have part of my life destroyed.  Because HMRC is attempting to cost cut and in doing so is destroying families and driving them to despair, with their decisions made wholly to save money.

The 250 mile move has led me to another mother suffering the same at the hands of her controlling police officer ex partner in ****.  HMRC’s award of Child Benefit and Tax credits to the high earning officer, over the part time minimum wage mother, is confirmation of my suspicions that this is a cost saving exercise for HMRC.  I battled HMRC for over 2 years to prove they were wrong in their decision, which they made on this basis.

A tribunal took 5 minutes to agree with me WHILST THE HRMC REPRESENTATIVE AGREED WITH THE JUDGE MUMBLING ‘I’M NOT SURE WHY WE’RE HERE!!!!!’  Hell and my life destroyed, leaving our friends and family, the village I grew up in, our home (previously MY grandparents), filling each day with letters and evidence gathering day after day for 2 years whilst struggling as a single mother, ink, paper, postage, photocopying, telephone calls mounting on my credit card bill, overdraft, interest, frustrated telephone calls to a call centre, being misinformed by HMRC staff, constantly being told that my call couldn’t be escalated to any senior person, hours trying to entertain my 3 year old daughter whilst dealing with paperwork and making phone calls, time and money lost in travelling to tribunals, my daughter’s first trick or treating missed, the list goes on………to hear those sorry words from HRMC ‘I’m not sure why we’re here’.  I want to scream as I write this remembering the torture and pain I was going through.

The 13 months which have passed since my complaint was initiated with the adjudicator has given me nothing other than telephone calls with the adjudicator telling me that they are so inundated with complaints they have no idea when mine can be investigated.  This needs to be resolved and is a matter of public concern.  The adjudicator cannot cope with the volume of complaints.

Nearly two 2 years later, and having won my tribunal against HMRC, they should have put things right as they advocate in their ‘Putting Things Right’ leaflet.  Seeing my whole situation playing out in the new town I have moved to, with another set of parents shows I am not a ‘one off’.  HMRC have learnt nothing and continue to make things wrong, far from putting things right.  Somebody needs to take control of this situation.

My e-mail to 10 Downing Street 2 weeks ago, highlighting the waiting time for the adjudicator, was UNBELIEVABLY responded to by HMRC telling me that I needed to direct my enquiry to the adjudicator.  What an ABSOLUTE joke and a course of action which I am utterly disgusted with.  Mr Cameron you have let me down and there are many more people suffering too whist this is being ignored.

Can somebody please help us?"

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



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"

Increase In Complaints About HMRC

It seems that over the past year, complaints made by taxpayers (or is it "customers"?;)) to HMRC have increased dramatically.

One of the reasons for the “unprecedented” increase appears to be a surge in complaints about Pay As You Earn (PAYE); mainly relating to errors in tax codes issued between 2008 and 2010 that caused a large number of underpaid/overpaid taxes.

The Annual Report (year ended March 2013) by the Adjudicator’s Office (which handles complaints from dissatisfied "customers" who have already tried to complain to HMRC, the Valuation Office Agency or The Insolvency Service), when referring to HMRC, said (page 12):

"During 2012-13 we received 1331 new complaints about a range of taxation issues. This was an increase of 107% on 2011-12 and accounted for 52% of the total number of complaints received. We resolved 525, upholding 55% either partially or substantially. Our investigators mediated 15% of cases directly with customers and the department. A large number of the taxation cases reviewed related to PAYE and were considered under the provisions of HMRC’s Extra Statutory Concession A19 (ESC A19)."

In the summary the reports notes the following increases in complaints:

"The increase has all been from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) customers; including PAYE complaints up by 347% and Tax Credit complaints up by 59% on the numbers received in 2010-11."

Judy Clements, the adjudicator, said it has identified a number of areas at HMRC where there are “systemic failures”, resulting in poor complaints handling.

“Most notably it is disappointing that for the third year running I have seen a range of cases where specific customer needs have not been recognised or addressed. I am unable to establish whether complaint handlers are not recognising the customer need or feel they are not empowered to step outside of procedures and provide alternative support.”

She notes:

"I am disappointed at the number of complaints HMRC customers feel they need to refer to me in order to get resolution. My role should be to consider the difficult exceptions, not handle routine matters that are well within the capability of departmental staff to resolve successfully. At a time of austerity it is also important to note that the cost of dealing with customer dissatisfaction increases exponentially with every additional level of handling."

Wise words indeed!

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



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"