As a self employed loafer person I needed to get my tax matters in order by the due date of 31st January.
My accountant had sorted out my accounts and went to post my return online on the due date only to find the HMR&C website was down.
As this is a criticle date, hundreds of thousunds of people were late posting their returns and self assessments because of this.
Today I have recieved a letter from HMR&C informing me that I have to pay a penalty for a late tax return under Section 93(2) of the Taxes Management Act of exactly £0.00.
I’m glad they have seen sense and allowed some leyway BUT Can you imagine how much of your tax payers money has been spent sending hundreds of thousunds of these meaningless letters out by Royal Mail?
How many Gatso cameras could they have spent this money on? Or even nurses:cool:
I know it seems ridiculous to have sent a demand out for zero pounds, and yes the cost of all those letters appears a total waste, but unfortunately they would have had to have sent you a letter anyway to say ‘don’t worry, our system failed so we’ve given you all some extra time to complete and return your tax returns’ so they’d have spent the money on postage anyway!
You don’t want to know how much they spent on postage informing all the people whose details went missing when those CD’s were lost, especially compared to the cost of removing the sensitive data in the first place! :ermm:
Nah that wouldn’t work, they spend millions apologising for all the ‘****-ups’ over the years, not to mention the war in Irag, Afghanistan, Indonesia, there part in helping Pinochets regime etc etc etc…you get the picture… :crazy:
Yeah it could have done but they’d still be obliged to let everyone know by traditional methods, just in case they didn’t receive the email, either way it makes no sense…
Last year I was sent a letter telling me I hadn’t done the company return and I would have to pay a huge fine and interest (can’t remember the number but it was > £1000). I had done my return very early in the tax year so was sure it was a mistake. My accountant rang them, but you can’t speak to anybody, you have to send an official letter to which they will then respond (while meanwhile the fine increases).
After about 2 months, I received a letter saying I wasn’t due anything. No explanation, no apology …
Some years ago, I had a utility bill for £0:00. I ignored it. Then I got a red bill for £0:00. I gnored it. Then I got threatened with being cut off if I did not pay £0:00. Then I rang them.
The solution was to send them a cheque for £0:00. That gave them a cheque number “in full settlement”.
Believe me this is the tip of the iceberg and the wastage of taxpayers finances is systemic within the HO. I know this because [sensored by the Home Office]
