Everyone has their off days but trying to get support from HMRC is getting more and more frustrating. Here in the office we deal with HMRC almost everyday and we understand how hard it is to get an unambiguous answer or for a simple fix to a problem.
So, if you’re having problems with HMRC we can relate.
Last year our own business started to receive outstanding payment letters for PAYE Liabilities that we had already paid. I contacted the employer helpline and we went through the details together, between us we worked out that HMRC had lost several payments in the system and they said they would open a dispute to investigate.
After hanging up the phone, I thought that the matter was now dealt with until they found the payments, but I was wrong.
Although this was a fault on their part, we were still bombarded with letters chasing payment. Every time I called, I spoke to a different person and I had to go through the whole scenario again and again.
Always being given a different answer, I was going around in circles and receiving very little help or support. To this day the situation still isn’t resolved even after complaining, we haven’t received a response.
I understand how frustrating it can get but if you are going through a similar experience you need to be persistent until your problem is fixed.
It also helps to keep a record of everything that has been sent or spoken about, that way you have a paper trail to look back at if you find yourself in the same situation we have.
Tips to try and avoid problems with HMRC: –
- Always check the figures you are submitting to HMRC against the reports for that period.
- If the payroll needs correcting for any reason don’t submit an FPS/EPS on the same day, for the same period. If you do it will go through as a NIL and it won’t correct the figures. On occasions it has also come to light that the NIC figures have been corrected but the Tax figure has been deducted from the figure previously submitted.
- Always make payments by the 19th of the next month and keep a record of when it was paid.
- Don’t ignore letters that you receive even if you think you have already dealt with the problem as it may be that HMRC haven’t updated their records correctly and you could end up with one of their debt collectors in your office.
HMRC have admitted themselves that their system can be sensitive which causes problems if the account needs to be corrected, let’s hope their PAYE system gets more robust in the near future.
If you feel like you have taken your case with HMRC as far as you can and still haven’t resolved the situation, you can contact the ombudsman to take your case further.
