Massive delays at HM Revenue and Customs are seeing people wait months for money they are owed. An investigation by a national newspaper discovered that staff could take as long as 10 months to carry out tasks that should be done in 15 days.
It also uncovered a host of mistakes, including a 'fat finger' error that saw a business being chased for money it didn't owe. The Times investigation analysed HMRC's performance, revealing that targets were being missed in 14 out of 27 service categories.
This included appeals against tax penalties, payment of self-assessment refunds and marriage allowance claims. The Times said that accountants had become concerned to the point that representatives of all four professional bodies - the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the Association of Taxation Technicians, and the Institutes of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and Scotland - have written to Myrtle Lloyd, the director-general of customer services at HMRC expressing their "longstanding" worries about services.
