In message , MM
writes
I've just been on the phone to the HMRC since I received this morning
two revised tax notices for 6th April 2009 to 5th April 2010. These
new codes meant that I would have to pay 20% of tax on my private
pensions, but, as I pointed out to the HMRC, I do not receive income
in total that is more than my personal allowance (by far). My details
haven't changed in three years, either, yet the HMRC computer still
issued these revised tax codes to give it, wrongly, the benefit of 20%
tax.

The assistant checked my details through the computer and changed the
tax codes again,so that I no longer pay tax on these pensions, as has
been the case since 2006. When I asked the assistant how these errors
had occurred, she simply said, umming and ahhing, well, the computer
is supposed to calculate the codes automatically, but somehow it
failed this time.

A friend who works in a tax office told me something similar, that tax
code calculations are now automated (computer says.....).
She also finds that some of the queries and transactions she now has to
deal with are above her level of training (increased complexity), and an
increasing number have to be escalated to a supervisor.
She has been doing the job for some years now, and is happy to be part
time, as they are expected to complete 170 transactions in an 8 hour
shift, which means less than three minutes on each case.
Every hour, they have to report their progress on a whiteboard.

Please don't tell anyone I told you. ;-)
--
Gordon H
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