Hmrc Reviews 279

As a PAYE employee I finally hit over 50k salary to be told that I need to pay back child benefit payments that I don’t claim but my wife who does not work does. But if I only earned 49k and my wife actually worked and was payed 49k we wouldn’t need to pay any back?! Completely unfair and crippling to drop a £1500 pound bill on someone and say it needs to be payed in full by January! Scammers comes to mind.

It is clear best to calculate and pay tax without waiting until the end of the year as at that time they are inundated.Self assessment every year tedious log in details /password issues. Finaly trying to pay asked for an identity starting with an X and ending with a K this I did not have so rang and paid by debit card. Employing a tax service to do this ? No, as most of the work is accessing all the figures and I do not like giving so much information, may be security risk,the lady who used to do this for me now retired.

I called HMRC as I couldn't get logged into my online personal tax account and had a query about paying tax on savings interest.

Due to the negative press HMRC receive, I was expecting a rubbish experience but I was wrong.

Yes it did take a while to get through on the phone but once I was connected to a HMRC representative, it was plain sailing from there.

Phill A dealt with my queries and was amazing. He was very informative, an absolute pleasure to deal with and I felt like he did care about my call. He even took the time to explain my tax code to me and what the code meant so that I could understand my pay statement and what a change to my tax code would mean. He also gave me advice on how to inform them of any future income changes so to avoid being taxed incorrectly.

The only reason I knocked a star off is because I initially had problems getting passed the automated section when you initially call in but otherwise a very positive experience which I wasn't expecting.

Spent hours on phone trying to give hmrc my new address all to no avail. The customer care team are rude and uncaring. All I want to do is the right thing and notify them that I have moved. It seems to be a totally impossible task. I have no more energy left to deal with this problem anymore. I am a 70 plus pensioner and cancer patient. Totally distressed person. I can't go on line. So how do get my address changed would someone at hmrc contact me?

Out of the blue I receive a letter from the HMRC requesting £226.20. My initial concern was that it was a scam, as the letter was amateurish to say the least. They stated that they hadn't received payment, yet but this was the first communication from them. So I login to the government gateway, which is the most poorly designed and illogical mess I have seen, apart from - oh yes other government websites! I think that the threat on a debt collector in the first instance is a bit extreme, but that's the HMRC for you. Terrible and definately worse than having teeth pulled.

Useless. Website goes down I get charged interest and then they don't listen to any spprals

How many times must a Tax payer have to phone to request a tax refund?? If it was a payment owed to them, very different! I have been lied to, time and time again, saying my refund will arrive soon..... Months later still waiting! This is each time, If I finally manage to speak to someone. The app, is not fit for purpose either. This is not good enough HMRC. People need their owed money back, waiting months on end, is unacceptable.

Attempting to claim a straight-forward rebate. Has now taken approaching 6-months post filing. I have been given dates which have then been missed. Cracked last week and filed a complaint with the Ombudsman. Useless...

HMRC 100% NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE…
HMRC 100% NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE !!!!!!!!! Phone call after phone call after phone call and we are still banging our heads against the brick wall !!!!!!!! Email after email after email and still the useless HMRC haven’t refunded £25,000.00 we have overpaid that is owed to my company !!! This has now gone on for almost one year this is definitely Gross professional misconduct .
I seriously don’t know anyone in business that had a good word to say about HMRC …….

Nightmare to get through on the phone to rectify an error that they have made

The only reason I gave them 1 start is because there is no zero star option. Completely useless. They take forever to answer calls and then can't help anyway. To be fair, the people aren't to blame. The system is ridiculous. As an example, if you need a paper tax return form, your only option is to phone the call centre and ask for the form to be posted.
1. The form should be downloadable - near zero cost and time for HMRC and the taxpayer.
2. Even if it's not downloadable, add an option to the website to request a form. Again - near zero cost and time.
The use of post is anyway crazy. You can't ever email anybody. They want a phone call or letter, both of which waste time and money. Also, letters from the HMRC for some weird reason take two months to reach Portugal when normal post takes 3 or 4 days. Are they sending letters by camel train?

Very unprofessional and robbing people

The worst ever expirience. Poorly educated people trying to do something while having a bath.
HMRC are daylight robbers and thiefs.

Help!!!
It’s impossible to get through to someone to help change my tax code.
This is an urgent matter for me but I’m kept waiting and waiting and no one answers.
Is there a serious staff shortage?
I’m guessing no one from HMRC will bother to respond to this review.

Thanks Akib for your unempathetic phone manner. Telling me all the teams I need to speak to are admin does not help me the customer. And having no manager available also hinders me the customer.

Spent over 20 minutes waiting for my call to be answered concerning my online tax return. Finally got through and the women couldn't seen to even be capable of finding the page I was on and asked me SIX tie what page it was. Finally she declared she couldn't help me and gave me another number to ring. Another 30 mins later still no answer. Had to phone back later to top up my pension which as I don't pay NI contributions I can't do online...40 mins later still no answer...

Have received a demand for payment of tax. Trying to pay but their system does not accept the reference number given on their demand for payment. Interest continues to accrue against me.

I spoke to a lady called Megan in the debt team as my business is struggling due to the insulation funding been reduced heavily since April and I advised that I am going to be going bankrupt in December. She was very helpful indeed and Megan definitely deserves recognition for been so helpful thank you

The first lady I spoke to was absolutely vile asking me why I want to go bankrupt 😱 so I ended up shouting down the phone at her but she was saying things like you owe it you need to pay she was horrible towards me and then refusing to put me through to a manager so needless to say I raised a complaint about the first lady

It's like I said to Megan I suffer with anxiety and mental health and have just come back from the doctors about my mental health so the first lady shouldn't be allowed on the phones speaking to people like that

I've just been calling someone from Hrms and instead of solving my problem she cut the line
I've been waiting for the call for 10 minutes
I am very disappointed

Absolute disgrace something needs to be done they need to be held accountable for the shambles. We have been trying to sort out child benefit since April!multiple calls on hold for over 20 minutes then just cut off when you do get through no ones knows what they are talking about and all contradict each other.my wife was cut off after she was told she would be put through to another department when she called back after being on hold again she was told the system had been updated to say she had been given advice and support and told what to do next!this was a complete lie! Then they say you can’t talk to the people that are handling the claim and they don’t have any information! This cannot be correct!!! We have raised a complaint and told we will get a call back after 24 to 48 hours but I very much doubt that will happen!!!! All we are trying to do is switch the child benefit from my name to her name it’s that simple!!!! Clearly form these reviews there massive hailing in all departments. The staff are nice enough but clearly clueless likely not enough training.