Welcome to my Friday’s Rants from the Soap Box in my Living Room. A small space in the week where I can have a chunter about things that have made me twitch with annoyance or made me question if the world has gone mad or not….
I also linked up with MummyBarrow for her Ranty Friday. You can find her blog and link up here if you’d like to join in. A good rant can be therapeutic.
This week, the subject of my rants is that mysterious, notorious government body know as HMRC or Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs or as we all know them by the name that brings a sense of dread and doom… THE TAXMAN!
They are a shambles of disorganisation. This past tax year, they have sent LSH no less than tax code changes, because of one simple error made by his employer, which made them change his tax code ,his tax allowance for his pension and the private health care contribution he makes was miscalculated, by a whopping £35. We have then had letters from them, changing his code, telling use we OWE them this money, that it would be taken from his PAYE (what he pays in tax currently) but then they send us a new tax code, with a slightly different amount, but basically meaning the same thing. We have rung them, and allegedly sorted it out, but they then sent two new tax codes out, within days of each other, one for last year, one for this year, again with different amounts, so we are not sure if they have got the right code. If his pay cheque this month is under what it should be, you can bet we will be on the phone to them faster that you can say “tax haven” to harass them to sort it out. We file our paperwork correctly, we do it on time, we pay our taxes, they are pretty damn quick to claim any money back, yet this one simple clerical error, made numerous times probably has cost them more in manpower, postage and printing , than we now actually owe them. When you try to get through to them on the phone, the call waiting times are ridiculuous, and you get passed from one person to another, then the blame is shifted to LSH’s employers (who were actually the ones who asked us to sort it out, so we don’t end up paying more tax than we should) and then back again! Basically GRRRR to the Tax-man who has messed us about, and yet we still apparently owe them money, and they do LOVE to make us pay.
I have to phone them myself, this week, to sort out my own tax allowance and a minor pension issue, and I am not looking forward to the wait on the call and being fobbed off by someone on the other end, who clearly can’t organise anything, much less keep track of how much tax I should or should not be paying.
I am apparently not the only person who is unhappy with their services. This week, I read an article on the BBC saying that MP’s also felt the same way!
They are a shambles of disorganisation. I know I am not alone, I know they wind other people up! Please feel free to comment and of course, if you have had a marvellous experience with the Tax Man, I would love to hear about it, might put them in a better light when I have to phone them next week!
Have a good weekend! Don’t forget to link up , if you want to share a rant!
They are so rubbish – you wonder what they do and why everything takes SOOOO long. You also wonder why, as the tax man, they don’t pounce on those big companies trying to worm their way out of paying the masses of tax they actually owe. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, (great post btw! :))
I know. We owe them 3£5 quid, you would think they would be better off hassling the big companies who are not paying tax properly, like Starbucks. I am pretty sure if they got their taxes sorted for big companies, it would kick start our economy!
They really re a pain aren’t they – if you owe them something they are up your arse quicker than you know, but if you’re owed a thing you better be prepared to wait DECADES for them to sort it out…! grrrr indeed x lol
I know. They have sent us 3 letters telling use we owe them the £35 for the error in calculating LSH’s work benefits package, yet if they mess up his tax code and he is paid wrong on Monday, apparently it could take MONTHS to sort out! YAY!!
They are such a shambles! I had to deal with them a few years ago, it was such a run around trying to get even the simplest of information out of them, almost as though they deliberately try to be difficult!
I am really not looking forward to having to call them and sort out what should be a minor thing, but will no doubt be a pain in the bum to actually get dealt with!
it the same with tax credits! a bloody joke!
I know. Don’t even get me started on THAT system!! 🙁