Increasing rudeness of the Revenue

Increasing rudeness of the Revenue

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I have this morning received a letter from the Debt Management people in Bradford regarding one of my clients who lives overseas and who owes the Revenue tax. No problem so far.

However, although the letter is addressed to myself, there is no intoduction with a standard "Dear Sir" or anything, it simply states Re: Client Name,reference and NI number, then goes straight on to state "Please arrange for this balance to be paid immediately to avoid case being transferred to taxpayers country of resident for the tax authority to start recovery action against your client" (The incorrect grammar is the Revenue's, not mine)

It then schedules out the arrears, and simply ends with the line "Interest is running on the amount to pay. Please pay it now" - no 'Yours sincerely' or 'faithfully', or even a name of the ignorant bureaucrat who sent it.

I am intending referring this rudeness to David Varney, as I am not at all happy with the way we agents are being written to now.

Has anyone else received this sort of offensive rude letter, or is it just me?
John Savage

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By User deleted
28th Feb 2006 20:29

I suppose it depends where you draw the line
I'd have said that without an introduction or sign off a letter isn't a letter.

It sounds to me very similar to what you might expect to receive from a bank or credit card company in the first instance; a list of what's due and a reminder that last months payment needs something done about it.

I certainly wouldn't be getting worked up about it. Life is too short and heart tablets are too expensive.

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By David Franks
27th Feb 2006 18:45

me too
A client who has had a loss b/fwd got a letter today saying she owed tax. I knew it must be an error on HMRC's part. I called them and they looked at the return on the screen. I might add at this point that I had wasted 30 mins trying to get through to them as they are always engaged.

I was then told 'the loss was missed' 'you will have to write in'.

There was no apology for their error in keying, and why should I write in?

The last 3 letters I have sent have never received a reply.

I think they are a law unto themselves.

It does gall me though when I have to waste my time writing into them to correct their mistakes. This happens frequently. I dont pass the charge to the client, so I am effectively wasting my time doing volunatary work for HMRC.

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By User deleted
27th Feb 2006 20:10

Not a statement?
Dear Sir,

It sounds like a copy statement with a note on it?

But "ignorant bureaucrat"? My dear fellow, that's not very polite!

And most likely it was sent by a computer? Maybe they are cold and unloving and didn't give the computer a name.

Yours faithfully,

Mike

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By frauke
27th Feb 2006 17:48

Increasing rudeness
I'm afraid this is not just the revenue - I come across increasingly everywhere.

Last year I had to screen applicants and arrange interviews for a client - for the post of Sales/Office Admin.

Only one of the applicants supplied a covering letter/e-mail - the norm was a single line if they sent anything at all!

Although a couple did not turn up or let us know they were not going to turn up for the interview - one sent me a e-mail saying that they had a meeting a work and could not come. There was no Dear ...... or yours ............ or even a request to reschedule etc.

The applicants that did turn up, were asked to send a covering e-mail, fax & letter to a customer as a "interview test". Again almost everyone did the same thing - only one person actually used Dear ..... and finished with a signiture block. They got the job - was it co-incidence that they were the only applicant over 50 years old?

By the way I'm under 50!

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By AnonymousUser
01st Mar 2006 12:59

Insisting a client pays their tax

Yes, a office wrote to us recently about a former clients tax arrears, "Please pay the arrears immediatly".

I wrote back pointing out they were our clients arrears, not ours, and we are not doing their (HMRCs) recovery job for them!

I think its a case of you employ monkeys, you end up with a zoo.

 

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By John Savage
28th Feb 2006 07:45

Actually Mike...
it was a letter - been in this business for long enough to know the difference between a statement and a letter.

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