An HMRC office rang me today to ask a question about a client's tax affairs. Before proceeding, the lady said 'I'd just like to ask you a few security questions'. I interrupted her by saying she was the one ringing me and I'd first like to check her bona fides by asking her to give me my SA agent reference. 'Oh, I can't do that over the 'phone' she replied.
My response was that she obviously wanted ME to give confidential info over the telephone but she was not prepared to submit to any sort of security check. Twenty five years ago the 'us' and 'them' relationship with the Revenue was disappearing - now it's back in spades.
By the way, I told her to write in with her query: as HMRC seems to take about eleven weeks to reply to general correspondence when I take the same time to respond let's hope she has the same amount of patience as we practitioners.
Graham Easton
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