There was a report on the BBC news this morning concerning 1000's of pensioners being sent demands for unpaid tax.This story has been floating around for a few months now but has taken a new twist as the pensioners have been told that bailiffs will be visiting to remove possessions unless paid in 28 days .
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/tax/inc...&in_page_id=77
Quote:
HMRC
There's growing concern over letters being sent out by HMRC to people who owe tax, which state that their possessions will be sold unless they pay up quickly.
Thousands of Britain's self-assessment taxpayers have been affected.
HMRC says it has a 'responsibility to the majority of taxpayers who pay their taxes in full and on time, to take firm but measured action against those that don't'.
But Money Box has been contacted by listeners who owe a few hundred pounds in tax who say it's been impossible to negotiate a re-payment schedule with the HMRC helpline
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programme...ox/9464716.stm
The above is just the latest cockup ,i have been self employed for nearly 20yrs and over the last 5yrs or so i have noticed a distinct downturn in the HMRC's capabilities to collect the correct tax or to correct errors .I have an ongoing issue where the HMRC owe me nearly £5000 ,i find it impossible to speak to anyone as they now operate from a call center(officially known as the tax helpline) and you cannot speak to anyone who actually deals with your tax affairs ,it takes a minimum of 3 months to open and read any corrospondence and if different departments within the HMRC are involved then there is a 1 month delay as that dept takes possesion of the case and then another month to pass it back to the original dept dealing with issue .My case involves several depts so i have been advised that it will be at least another 2 months before there is a result ,they recieved my paperwork on 7th oct 2010
In my opinion a dept as important as the HMRC needs to be run correctly and efficiently, even more so in the current times as it is important that the government get the tax due but are not bogged down with sorting out errors in tax codes resulting in under/over payments