Brits beleaguered by HMRC


HMRC are under increasing pressure to answer to the UK public after a seemingly endless string of errors that have left the public “beleaguered”.

A number of errors have been highlighted that have severely affected honest UK taxpayers, and they are now demanding that HMRC act on the mishaps and explain their actions.

In an open letter Money Mail have said: “We believe HMRC is out of control and without adequate oversight. Taxpayers — and pensioners in particular — report feeling bullied by its insensitive, hypocritical and inconsistent behaviour.”

With particular incidents in mind, the tax code fiasco that HMRC failed to warn taxpayers about has been noted as the main offence. With various other errors and unfair practices spiralling out of that error, Money Mail are said to be compiling a dossier which it will hand to top MP's in a bid to see HMRC challenged.

Some of the other issues include:

Non-existent customer service- expensive phone lines leading to dead-ends for over 20 minutes
Correspondence totally ignored
A lack of actual explanation into tax bills
Poor advice
Increasingly aggressive methods of recouping tax

These are just a few of the points that have garnered HMRC a tremendous amount of negative press over the last year, and now they are being implored to answer for their sins.

Several politicians have been speaking of the problems HMRC has experienced and offered their thoughts on the debacle.

Lib Dem Ian Swales said: “The current system is obviously not working effectively for people either inside or outside HMRC. At a time such as this, when everyone across the country is having to tighten their belts, it is unacceptable that HMRC is failing to collect such a large amount of money through inefficiency and mismanagement.”

Labour MP Gregg McClymont said: “I worry that the combination of low staff morale, which the Government inherited but is contributing to, and further funding cuts might be a perfect storm that leads to more problems at HMRC.”