Longest delayed in getting a response from HMRC

Will anyone be able to top this?

Didn't find your answer?

The forum is not lacking in tales of HMRC taking weeks or, more often, months to respond to contact. However, I will be interested to see if anyone can top this.

As part of my job, I manage the Ex-Employee mailbox. All emails sent to addresses of people no longer with the firm are forwarded to this mailbox so I can deal with any genuine contacts. 

Today I received a response from HMRC to an email an ex-employee sent to them. They apologised for the delay in contacting us.

The date of the original email they were referring to? 24 July 2020. 

Replies (20)

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ALISK
By atleastisoundknowledgable...
14th Jan 2022 09:28

I think we’ll struggle to beat that … don’t think I can get over 12 months. Does waiting for amended CT600s to be processed count?

Thanks (3)
By SteveHa
14th Jan 2022 10:01

I had a complex trust issue that got passed from pillar to post in HMRC for more than two years, with not even an update, let alone a substantive reply. I had made proposals about how to resolve, but no-one either seemed to understand, or had the authority to reply.

I eventually emailed (as was) the office of Lyn Homer. The next morning I got a conference call from a senior Trust inspector and HMRC's solicitor's office, and two weeks later they agreed my proposals in their entirety.

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By AndyC555
14th Jan 2022 11:21

Shortly before the first lock down (our letter was dated 28th February 2020) I sent a share transfer form and cheque to HMRC Stamp Office. In the first week of December 2021 it was returned to me with a letter dated 30th December 2020 , along with the cheque, saying they'd changed procedures due to Covid and everything was now done on line.

So HMRC had taken 10 months to write the letter and then a further 11 months to post the letter.

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By justsotax
14th Jan 2022 11:53

I sent in an appeal against personal tax penalties 22/6/20 - been advised it should be dealt with by the end of this month.

I await the irony of being told its tough the client was late.....when they eventually write back of course....maybe 2023?

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By snickersinatwix
14th Jan 2022 12:52

we submitted a loss c/back claim for corporation tax on 12 October 2020. They finally processed it on 20 December 2021.

Absolutely diabolical.

Thanks (1)
RLI
By lionofludesch
14th Jan 2022 14:43

Are we talking about actually getting a reply ?

If not, I'll remind you that a reply to my letter of 24th November 2002 is still outstanding.

Thanks (3)
Replying to lionofludesch:
Stepurhan
By stepurhan
15th Jan 2022 10:06

Complete lack of reply for that long is going to be hard to beat.

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By Paul D Utherone
14th Jan 2022 14:54

Letter Oct 2020 to correct an informal estate return & get resulting refund

Acknowledged Nov 2020 "We cannot deal with it now and will write with a full reply when we have finished dealing with it"

As of last week, radio silence

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By ireallyshouldknowthisbut
14th Jan 2022 17:21

Waiting since Feb 2021 for a reply to a tax investigation, we know the officer has left the case.

We are in no hurry for it to be reallocated so haven't prompted them for a response.

A mere pup in the scheme of things as I explained to my client who suggest we leave matters well alone and hope it drops off the bottom of the list.

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By AS44NG
17th Jan 2022 21:04

You got a reply? :-O

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accountant in london
By Accountant in London
18th Jan 2022 09:43

1.I had a discovery assessments appeal for a client who died in July 2018, that I sent in November 2019. It was going around the circle in March 2020. The bereavement team could not deal with it and the usual SA team seemed not to know what to do with a deceased client's appeal. After endless calls and going around in circles I decided to use the Agent Account Manager Issue Resolution service in May 2021, HMRC accepted the appeal and closed the matter in July 2021.

2. I have emailed the share valuation team in July 2020, no reply yet.

3. specific HMRC department looking at loan charge issue in a client's 2019/20 return. (mind you there is no loan charge as the matter was settled via negotiated settlement). I emailed them in January 2021, no response received yet.

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By Fred Hoad
18th Jan 2022 09:55

Sent in an appeal against some penalties on 9 April 2021.

Got a reply 5 January 2022.

Appeal was upheld.

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By raybackler
18th Jan 2022 11:23

I wrote on 1st February 2016 on behalf of a new client where pension deductions had incorrectly benefitted employees over a number of years with incorrect tax deductions. This was in a high staff turnover industry and all but two of the employees had left, so corrections could not be made to the payroll. We offered HMRC a PAYE settlement with full disclosure and after much chasing up, eventually got a reply dated 7th September 2017.

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Kitten
By Hazel Accounts
18th Jan 2022 12:50

I received a letter from HMRC on 2 Dec 2021 replying to my letter of 8 May 2019. (over 2.5 years). Letter did start "I'm sorry for the delay in replying." but unusually didn't refer to the date of my original letter.

Hmrc did at least agree the appeal against late filing penalties!

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Morph
By kevinringer
18th Jan 2022 14:14

I submitted two appeals: husband and wife. Both replies were dated by HMRC 364 days after the date of my letter. This was pre-Covid times. Today I think you could almost place a 1 in front of that number.

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ALISK
By atleastisoundknowledgable...
18th Jan 2022 15:14

R40 submitted May 21 for 2 minors (brothers), for the 3rd year in a row, 1 had his refund within 3 weeks, nothing yet for the other. We’ve chased a few times & resubmitted, but every time we talk to HMRC … neither child apparently exists on any HMRC system.

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By Tomazaan
19th Jan 2022 09:05

I can't beat 2002 but I submitted an IHT return for the end of a trust on 27/08/2018. I chased three times (last one on 15/04/2020) and have now given up.

The 2002 deadline reminds me of a enquiry I was asked to sort out when employed by a Big 4 accountancy firm (pre SA). Nothing had happened for over six years so I wrote to suggest that the enquiry be closed as HMRC was out of time to assess anything. They agreed.

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By CatsandDogs
19th Jan 2022 16:24

I have a couple of winners here:

RnD Claim submitted March 2020 - not a word from HMRC since despite multiple phone calls, escalations etc - it is apparently with a department that don't have telephones!
VAT number transfer from sole trader to Limited company - applied May 2020 - still no response on this either...

Perhaps I should try more than 10 minutes before replying to my clients without them chasing me up...

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Replying to CatsandDogs:
Morph
By kevinringer
19th Jan 2022 17:12

VAT TOGC are in a mess. I spoke to someone there a year ago and he was at his wits end then because they had so many unprocessed applications that they couldn't match up. I've just had one processed from September 2021 but one from April 2021 is not yet processed. A word of warning, they are under so much pressure they are making mistakes and they did something to my September 2021 client's registration preventing him or me filing his last quarter's VAT. It took hours of calls and emails to HMRC to get it fixed. HMRC admitted the problem was caused by a mistake they'd made when handling the TOGC.

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Stepurhan
By stepurhan
19th Jan 2022 18:50

I thought I had a good one, but obviously I am just an amateur compared to some of the reponses this got.

Meanwhile I had a client receive a letter out of the blue dated 14 December with a reply deadline of 29 December. Because 15 days (not counting ordinary postal delays and the fact HMRC don't always send letters out on their printed date), including the Christmas break is such a reasonable expectation. The hypocrisy is.... not surprising sadly.

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