Not a question - just a rant.
I have travelled to my office this morning (1 hour journey), only to find that all HMRC online services are apparently unavailable. A call to the online services helpdesk has resulted in me being informed that "they are working on it - please try again every 2 hours".
Simply not good enough.
Replies (14)
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Yep - and they seem blissfully unaware. The lady I just spoke to with a query said there is nothing flagged on her system but she would pass the issue on to her IT dept.
MTD is going to be so much fun!!
Because we all enjoy working on a Saturday anyway, right?
Even better when we are thwarted by HMRC!
As far as I'm concerned they've never been up in the past few days. I'm loath to submit RTI returns unless I receive a pretty quick acknowledgement. When my software tells me that there are problems I don't submit. This is exactly why I do my payrolls in the first week of the month to allow for HMRC ineptitude.
I am also working on a Sat not because I have nothing better to do but I have a clients VAT return to get in tomorrow.
I'm telling clients that I am setting my own deadline as 26th Jan (after that = tough).
This cant go on.
I made a formal complaint to the CIOT/ATT Working Together person on 25th Oct last year when it had gone down again and received this response:
"All noted, and highly infuriating. If HMRC want things done digitally, they need to provide the tools for us to do the job, and their systems need to be suitably robust....
I propose to forward the comments in your e-mail to those higher in the Institute. It is all very well saying that various aspects of the system are unreliable, it is the practicalities and the disruption that it causes that HMRC need to be aware of.
If HMRC don't know about the problems caused then they aren't likely to deal with the causes, so thank you for the e-mail".
I'm going to complain again.
They were working on Friday for RTI's & Tax Returns as I submitted both. I spoke to Agents Services on Thursday when they were down and she said you'll just have to be patient
Perhaps they're practising to be down on the 31st to maximise fine revenue
Great line. I can't wait to say to an HMRC jobsworth chasing me for information, 'You'll just have to be patient.'
Online service down 'again' but absolutely no information or advice from HMRC; simply they are not fit for purpose
I have e-mailed my MP to make him aware of this nonsense & suggest you do the same
So frustrating.
We have seven members of the tax department working today and no Agent Services.
It's simply inept of HMRC to have so much downtime in January. They have their own statistics showing how large a proportion of all Returns are filed in the last month, so surely any updates, service downtime, etc. should be avoided/minimised this month.
A commercial organisation with real customers would not get away with it!
I too have emailed my MP.
I bet if the VAT returns are filed late there will be penalties even if the system is still down tomorrow.
With no access to Agent Services, I am advised to contact the Online Services Helpdesk -
For PAYE & Self-Assessment=
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm
Saturday, 8am to 4pm
Closed Sunday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day
0300 200 3600
For VAT
Opening hours:
Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm
Closed weekends and bank holidays
0300 200 3701
So hard luck if you have a VAT problem, HMRC does not consider it is their responsibility to help you with their modern state of the art MTD aspirational 24 hour services when they are having a restful weekend. Poor dears, we should not really bother them with such trivialities when they need their rest.
So much for dream of MTD and the stark reality.