There was once a time when communication with the taxman was an almost impossible task. Comparable to drawing water from a rock or scratching your way out of an iron plated cell, getting a message through to ‘Hector the Inspector’ was not an easy feat, once upon a time.
What with social media taking hold of practically every living breathing human being in the country these days, it is not surprising that communication with HMRC is no longer such an arduous process. All you need to do is ask them a question, it’s that simple. (But making sure you mention @HMRCgovuk…)
Now that the tax office is on twitter, it has come as a shock to many that amongst the hashtags, trolls and memes, there is actually a bountiful torrent of helpful, straight information flowing from Hector’s account, and finally direct questions are answered without the 2 year waiting period.
So next time you need good old HMRC to cough up an answer, provide that bit more information or simply shed light on the contents of their dreaded brown envelopes, then get on your tablet, get your question at the ready, and tweet. You may just get an answer.
I would rather they sorted out the core accessibility first. Answer the phone, provide e mail addresses and carry on improving the online information about tax paid and due.
HMRC needs to focus on its basic communication services first – including opening its mail. 2 years on, still waiting for a resolution to a straightforward problem as they are too incompetent or lazy to drag their worthless carcasses down to their post room and open their post – they won’t accept email, they can’t deal with anything by phone even if you can get through, and their internal communications are farcical. Last time I called, I was genuinely told that “to manage my expectations” they had to advise me that it would take them 3 months to receive an internal response to an internal email to try and “action my query”. Well, it certainly managed my expectations – before they told me this I was only expecting gross incompetence – now I expect nothing less than total incapability to do anything at all.
These are the same people who fine you if you are a day late – wonder if they would let me off if I said I was using email, so can I have a 3 month extension!