HMRC Postal Delays

HMRC Postal Delays

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I have just this morning (29th May 2015) received a letter sent by HMRC on 8th May 2015. This has taken 21 days to arrive which if discounting for 2nd class mail, should not take more than 5 days. I have noticed in recent months that the post arriving from HMRC is taking longer and longer to arrive. It is difficult to understand why this is taking such a long time and wondered if anyone else has noticed a delay in their correspondance? Are there any advances on 21 days?

I have contacted HMRC to advise them of the delay and although they are aware there are postal problems, there doesn't seem to be any solution in sight apart from apologies from the staff. This is not their fault but the fault of the management within HMRC. When will they appreciate there is a problem and come up with a better post out service?

I would be interested to hear of your experiences in this matter.

Replies (20)

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By User deleted
29th May 2015 11:03

You might want to have a read of this piece 

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Replying to lionofludesch:
By itp3asso
29th May 2015 14:44

funny money
SPEAKS VOLUMES THAT AFTER THICK END OF TEN YEARS H J LEE STILL REFERS TO HIS EMPLOYERS FOR WHOM HE
IS AN AMBASSADOR AS ;

Inland Revenue ......

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Replying to bernard michael:
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By ann.greenwood
01st Jun 2015 11:54

itp3asso

Err...if you had read the article completely you would have seen that it was dated September 2003. Obviously another case of delayed posting!

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By Banzai
29th May 2015 11:08

date on letter is a nonsense

The simple fact is that the date on the letter usually has nothing to do with when it actually makes it into the post. If you compare postmarks on the envelopes to the letter there is often a massive gap. 

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RLI
By lionofludesch
29th May 2015 11:24

Reminder

A client got a letter about late payment of their VAT (they forgot about the 10th falling on a weekend - doh!) on 22 May.  Yesterday, they got another letter dated 21st asking where the surcharge money was.

It's not good enough.  The government should be squeaky clean in its procedures.  There's absolutely no excuse.

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By SlipperyJimDiGriz
29th May 2015 11:50

I once worked for a company which handled large mailings, which involved filling four foot high orange mail bags with franked, time critical post for clients' shareholders. A lot of the post was being delayed or just missing and they met with the postmaster on several occasions to "discuss the issue". One mailing had been 250,000 annual reports with notices of AGM, so a big stack of bags. While walking to the meeting room one day one of our guys glanced through a glass door panel into a huge warehouse type area. In the middle was a mountain of full mail bags, being added to as he watched. What caught his attention was the one or two orange bags just peeking out of the bottom! On further investigation the shamefaced postmaster found that the mountain of bags was never turned over, so old bags stayed at the bottom of the pile until they were reached. This was in 1990 but I wonder if HMRC's local sorting office might be the culprit?

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RLI
By lionofludesch
29th May 2015 11:54

Third Class Post

No - it's because they have a deal with Royal Mail to deliver when Royal Mail get round to it for a very cheap fee.

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By tinyme77
29th May 2015 12:07

I understand that it can take up to two weeks from the letter being written for the post department to process it. Could you imagine using this as an excuse of why a tax return was late!

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By phoare
29th May 2015 12:21

Probably no longer the case but...

Many years ago, it used to be cheaper for at least one Government department (DWP if I recall correctly) to ship their post en masse to Holland for it to be posted from there; the Dutch postal rates (in bulk) to the UK being cheaper than the Royal Mail (due in part of course to the fact that the Dutch didn't have to actually deliver the post to the letterbox... that's what the Royal Mail was there for!). So imagine the delays involved there, especially when it made sense on a cost basis to ship to Holland by the cheapest method - sea!

Whilst I suspect (hope?) that is no longer the case... it would rather explain the delay if it were!

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By Paul D Utherone
29th May 2015 13:33

The excuse a few years back was that:


letters were printed centrally and if the right paper was not n the printer hopper - because for example they were on an SA Statement print run and all the printers had statement paper in them - then there would be a delay between the date on the letter created on the system, and the date it was actually printed, stuffed in an envelope and put in the post. But that was two or three years back now and at the time we were told that this problem had now been rectified and corrected.

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By pembo
29th May 2015 14:00

very useful

tool for HMRC meeting enquiry deadlines as well. Had a case a few years back when the letter arrived mid Feb but was dated 29th January that "coincidentally" was 2 days before the window slammed shut. Appealed it of course but didn't get anywhere. The enquiry then dragged on for 3 years with cracking fees so some good comes of it sometimes (alas not for the poor old client though).

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Glenn Martin
By Glenn Martin
01st Jun 2015 12:09

I suspect this is why they

are reluctant to communicate by email, and the "our systems might not be secure routine" is just a smoke screen.

If email communication was entered into, response times would be a lot quicker (in theory). Which is why they avoid it like the plague.

Its only us who are forced to jump through hoops and forced to file everything on line or be punished yet they seem to be allowed to do as they please.

 

 

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By lechiffre
01st Jun 2015 12:55

Totally unacceptable delays dealing with post

I have a case where the client has made a late SA declaration for CGT (mistaken belief they had relief for PPR), we sent a covering letter, a 64-8, the TR (cannot file online as out of date) and the client's cheque for the tax in first week of March. The cheque cleared our client's account within a few days but nothing having been been heard we followed up with phone calls.

HMRC cannot trace either the letter, the TR or the 64-8!

We were told via the agent line that there is a 6 month backlog dealing with post and there was nothing they can do.

Meanwhile the client has no idea what provision they need to make for penalties and interest.

Totally unacceptable.

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By yorkiehurst
01st Jun 2015 13:15

postal delays

this happened frequently years ago, the reason given then was that the dictation date was being used, even though the correspondence might not be 'typed up' or posted till some time later, we have been receiving correspondence predated up to 4 weeks for some time now, we therefore always date stamp letters when they arrive and are opened immediately, and always refer hmrc to the date of our receipt of their correspondence, and not the date typed on it, and advise them we consider the date of delivery as being the relevant date to set deadlines by etc. I'm sure it'll be interesting if they ever challenge it.

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By claudialowe
01st Jun 2015 14:05

On my replies....

.... I always start my letters to them with "I am in receipt of your letter dated xx received on yy"

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Morph
By kevinringer
02nd Jun 2015 13:34

I notice HMRC letters often omit the date and only state ...

... month and year - probably to conceal the delay. Soon they will be omitted the month too. 

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RLI
By lionofludesch
02nd Jun 2015 13:52

Maybe ....

...maybe the year.

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By Kazmc
02nd Jun 2015 14:57

Just don't............

Just don't understand why they cannot use email?

Cost effective and quick

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By tonyaustin
02nd Jun 2015 19:28

Formal Notices

Today (2 June) I received my Notice to file a tax return dated 6 April. Agent authorisation (64-8) codes to clients, which have a 30 day time limit regularly take two weeks to arrive based on date of issue.

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By jmwaa
02nd Jun 2015 23:58

Notice to File
I also received 3 notices to file on 2 June. All were dated 6 April. Two of the returns have already been filed by Internet, at the end of April.

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