I have received a “simple assessment” invoice from HMRC. The letter demands overdue tax from 2018, but I have never received any prior communication about this, and my tax is deducted at source. I feared it might be a scam since the phone number on the letter does not match any of those listed on HMRC’s website. The obvious solution was to check with HMRC, but it was uncontactable. All the phone lines I tried stated they had 50-minute waiting times. Its chatbot directed me to an email address that produced an automatic reply saying it couldn’t help. So I have a letter that says that if I don’t pay tax I never knew I owed within 28 days, debt collectors will be appointed. But I have no way to check if the letter is genuine.
HW, Cambridge
HMRC blames you and me for its being incommunicado. Its chief executive Jim Harra told the Treasury select committee that people were clogging up the phone lines with “unnecessary” questions that could be answered by the website. More than a quarter of calls to HMRC are cut off or abandoned because of record waiting times. HMRC’s solution? To close its tax helplines for six months each year from April to force taxpayers to answer queries online – a decision that was rapidly reversed.
