Complaints Against HMRC Increase

The role of The Adjudicator is to act as an independent complaint handler in matters of disputes involving HMRC, Valuation Office and The Insolvency Service. Judy Clements, OBE, the current Adjudicator, cannot consider disputes about aspects of departmental policy and matters of law but she can look at complaints about:

• mistakes;
• unreasonable delays;
• poor and misleading advice;
• inappropriate staff behaviour; or
• the use of discretion.

In the recently published report for the year ended 31^st March 2012, The Adjudicator's Office revealed a dramatic increase of 32% in overall complaints about HMRC. Tax credit complaints rose by more than 20% but PAYE complaints were up by a whopping 114% during the latter half of the year compared to 2010/11. It is probably not surprising that PAYE complaints rose so steeply given the fiasco the Revenue presided over early last year when it issued 450,000 tax calculations for unpaid tax relating to the year 2007/08.

During 2011/12, The Adjudicator received 642 new complaints about HMRC's handling of tax matters, with 494 being resolved. Of those 494, 40% were upheld either partially or substantially. A large number of those complaints concerned the operation of Extra-Statutory Concession A19, the concession which allows for tax arrears to be written off in a given set of circumstances.

On occasion, The Adjudicator recommends that HMRC pays compensation to taxpayers in recognition of the poor level of service they received. In the year ended 31^st March 2012 a total of £169,212 was recommended as redress payments comprised as follows:

The Adjudicator plays an important role where taxpayers are dissatisfied and frustrated by HMRC's service but if their complaints cannot be resolved by The Adjudicator's Office they can still ask an MP to refer their complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman for further consideration.