Hmrc Reviews 

Called HMRC 20th March looking for a copy of my tax returns as can only go back to 2020 online and looking for 2017 for going to court.
Waited on phone 11/2 hours to get through, they cant email them to me because they dont have email facility, and will take up to 10 days.
15 days later still nothing, call them today 52 mins to get through, got Barry, sorry about this, I will get them sent out, will now take up to 14 days
What do I say to the Sheriff at court? Sorry sir?
This is a complete disgrace, they charge me £100 penalty if Im late with my returns, made a formal complaint to them on the 20th March, got a text yesterday they have received my complaint and will get back to me soon.
Unbelievable and so frustrating!
Regards
Allan Fulton

spend 45 minutes waiting to speak to someone who can't even speak english. set up payment plan and still receiving letters with false informations from these thieves. please hire people that can actually speak english properly. It is so hard to understand these customer support team.

HMRC actually have some really good people working for them. If you can get through to the right person, and that's a big IF, then often they are really helpful. Some of the processes have been streamlined a lot in the last 20 years and the website is often clear and effective. When things go right it's great, but when they don't is when they really don't...

The difficulty is that some of their systems are quite 'rigid' and therefore things easily stuck in the system. I currently have a form they've had for over a year to update one detail on a VAT account - receipt of the form has been confirmed by HMRC- but it's not been processed and there's no note of why and no contact was made to indicate what has happened. Almost a dozen calls/chats later still no luck - every HMRC advisor struggles to understand what went wrong because there's no note on the system. It's likely one tiny little detail caused the processing of this form to fail, and then their own records, on their own processing or their own form, tells them nothing.

They would say they are so busy they can't deal with all the enquiries (they tell you this in the answer machine messages) but often because a enquiry is dealt with so poorly (by the system, not the people), you end up making many more calls or chats than you should have to - wasting everyone's time, not least your own.

How has this company got away with such appalling service for so many years..(well before COVID)
Spent 4 hours today trying to contact via phone , internet & Hmrc chat...no one answered. Tried to get help with Capital Gain/Loss... have less than 55 days to get help..don't hold out much hope of that... Then of course I will be in the wrong for not notifying them !!

I am trying to sort out Capital Gains Tax issue and currently been waiting over an Hour for someone to answer the phone. They need more staff as this is absurd as could be resolved in 5 minutes.

They are charging me Late payment fees and interest for the VAT payment so it’s mean they charging me same thing twice, and when i’m trying to make the instalment plan with them they still charging me for the interest during the payment period, it’s like i took loan from them and in return i’m paying interest. How awful policy is this . Totally shameful.

90% of telephone operators have no clue about anything. They just try to read the guidance and do not actually know about it.

Sounds like cheap labour, no training, no updating and poor recruitment of staff. Staff are very rude.

I have lived in at least 6 countries due to work. The worst service for Revenue and Customers is definitely in the UK. The HMRC support is useless. You can't hold a call, you need to wait about 1 hour on the phone, and the system is crap. You never receive the code in your phone, you get instability when accessing and error messages with no sense. (I work in IT and can tell with confidence how bad it is)

I am very very disappointed with the service. The only problem is that we can't avoid it. There is no other channel or company to do that. After calling 5 times and waiting more than one hour to have my call dropped, I am now planning to hire someone to call them (it is comic, I know). When you are busy 1 hour (5 in my case) is a very expensive time to demand to a HMRC error.

Waiting for customer services now at 45minutes. Double their estimate. I would not mind but I cannot use the forum they give on line as I would if I could.

WHAT AN ABSOLUTE JOKE THEY DONT CARE but would hot of the press to get money. Something needs to be done about it.

I spoke to HMRC in January about money I owed them - I was advised to make a voluntary overpayment which I did - they then sent a letter saying I owed them the amount I’d sent them and would take it from me over the coming year.
Held on for 1 hour 30 minutes today got a very aggressive person who said I owed more than the amount I’d voluntarily payed as the tax year keeps evolving. I explained the conversation I’d had with the person who had advised me to make a voluntary overpayment - he said that was in the past so forget that.
He then said have a nice weekend and put the phone down.

Complaints department send out confusing letter which berates me for not answering a question that's not on the form they asked me to complete ended with the ludicrous statement "...discuss payment options if unable to pay by 31 January 2019". Hopeless in all areas

36hr on the phone issue still not resolved. I won't mind but I'm trying to pay a bloody bill. Online service 0 stars, human beings -40 stars, I think its time to emergarate your service is getting worse you'd be better sending the call centre to indian at leased they answer. Look at your reviews it says it all!

I am grateful that my case was handled promptly and professional. The refund did take more than half a year and continuous follow up though.

Much like the government, website is a shambles.

No need to go into great detail; absolutely dire in all aspects of the service they are paid to provide. They are a government service that is there to be as easily approachable as possible yet it seems, by their performance in general that they go out of their way in unecessary beurocracy and red-tape to make it as difficult as possible to reach them initially and then to sort your issue out. What a complete and utter farce.

Rude operatives, 3 in a raw..
I had to ask them to lower their voice and speak in a not aggressive way. Absolutely waste of time.
3 people telling 3 completely different things, and they get frustrated when I need to ask for clarification.
Also after waiting for 1 hour in the cue 2 of them hung up the phone after talking for 5 minutes, and I was not called back.
You should train your operatives to speak in a nice manner with people, not aggressively, mean and frustrated.

I'm terrified by HMRC. They are purposely making it difficult for people to pay their taxes. I would like to print off a paper form but you cannot do it anymore. Waste of time phoning they won't answer. They are trying to get everyone to do it online I'm 75 years old my partner is 79 and we struggle with technology. We are not going to get any better. Why should they bother when they can hound people

HMRC constantly miss allocate payments
Atomically send threatening bailiffs letters
Hours waiting in phone to resolve over 2 years of hassle and stress.
Chartered account has the same issue working for me I have to pay hourly rate for them to sit on helplines waiting
Like this Tory government it’s a shambles and a disgrace.
I am going to close my company and lay off all my staff
It’s a relentless nightmare

HMRC is just a waste of time, I think most of the staff work from home and they are not bothered about the tax-related problems you experienced. Tried to call them but half an hour later I had to hang up.

Start off with trying to contact them....they may have the luxury if bring able to make tea at home whilst they pretend to answer calls or listen...sadly the rest of the eorld doesnt.
Provide answers...spoken to 5 people today. No one can answer. Each has a stock reply which continuously sounds as if its being read from a prompt sheet.
Inaccurate information in perpetuity. Which is accurate on line? Or the many pieces of paper (which all arrive 10-20 days after they claim to be written!) Or....don't arrive at all..
Money paid directly from my bank ( arrives within 2 hours guaranteed) takes 4/5 days to be credited to my account. The interest on cumulative payments in a holding account must be huge. I suggest that pay some back. Or....get enough staff to do the transfers promptly.
Adding money on to what is owed without notice with 2 days before its due...how is that reasonable in any business?
Staff who only deal with one aspect of 'the case' and therefore cannot advise/ help in any other sense.
Complaints which are not acknowledged or even less dealt with in any time frame but HMRC can impose time frames arbitrarily on customers.
The whole business is shambolic and unfit for purpose.