HMRC What a waste of time

[Liz 101]

In January, I got a letter from HMRC advising me that I had underpaid my tax by £35.00, which I duly paid on my debit card. Today, I have received 2 letters from HMRC, both dated 11th July; one calculates my tax liability & shows, yes a £35.00 overpayment  : the 2nd is a cheque for £35.00. Thanks guys, I now have to find someone to take the cheque back to the UK & bank it for me, or it will be swallowed up by charges here

Both have come from the Newcastle office & have been sent via a delivery co in the Netherlands, so no doubt, the admin costs + postage will not be covered by the paltry bit of interest that they have earned by holding on to my money for 6 months. Wouldn't it have been cheaper for them & easier for both of us to refund it back to my debit card??

[peter16]

To refund the money back to your debit card would require someone at HMRC to actually use their brain, therein lies the problem...."No Brain" it's an organization run by automatons.

[johntaylor49]

Why wont a civil servant look out of the window in the morning? Because they would have nothing to do in the afternoon!  Why are they called Civoil Servants? They are neither Civil nor servile 

Seriously, I have had cause to spend long hours on the Telephone in Newcastle regarding my very complex Tax and Pension scenario, wont bore anyone with all details of Expatriate return, sale of a business, naturalisation proof, etc etc. but I did find them incredibly helpful an they even gave me DDI numbers to call them on! I questioned a lot of things, one of which was cheques -- and they did tell me they are only half way through a massive modernisation and reorganisation and they would be fully integrating with VOCA. (handles all bank transfers in UK and a lot of Europe -- possibly even Turkey!)

Have to say massive improvement!

Sorry about your chequwe to UK problem, anyone you can post it to? How man y Efes is that?

[KKOB]

Their post isn't sent via a delivery company based in the Netherlands. It's sent by TNT Post which, at the moment, is owned by the Netherlands Post Office and all goes through it's network in the UK. In the next few months the transfer of the business will be complete and TNT will be wholly owned by UPS.

[Liz 101]

Sorry about your chequwe to UK problem, anyone you can post it to? How man y Efes is that?

Fortunately, I am lucky enough to have a very kind neighbour, who will shortly be here on holiday & has offered to take it back to the UK for me