MTD- is it a waste of space?

[pawncob]

I submitted my 20/21 return on 22/04/21.
Today I received a text thanking me for submitting it and requesting that I pay any outstanding tax.
Being a conscientious accountant, I paid my tax by the due date, so I logged on to my account to find out how much might be due.
The message was :
There is a temporary problem with one of our systems. It means we cannot show your actual taxable income or details of the Income Tax and National Insurance you have already paid.

Are they really ten months behind? Will they ever catch up? Are we all doomed to live in cyberspace at the mercy of HMRC?

[etf]

By Trevor Brunwin
25th Feb 2022 10:36
I received a letter, posted on 17 February 2022, which started "Thank you for your letter dates 27 April 2021." What would happen if my practice did that to our clients or our friends at HMRC, I wonder?

By clp
25th Feb 2022 10:43
It has never been this bad.
What is worse now is that the first 2 minutes on any call is spent listening to recorded messages about not abusing staff and no we cant answer questions on assessment letters the info is on the letter and so on including comments on gender reassignment.
I have to allow a minimum of an hour to make a call - lining up a cup of tea and a trip to the loo and then start the call.
In the last month I have 4.5 hrs down as "HMRC calls" - it is expensive,
Light relief is provided when a response to previous written communication sent via letter/email is received- with the "sorry we haven’t met our 15 day target". Longest wait so far 268 days but many queries have had no response.
The upgrades to the system cause problems long after the upgrade - this year I have had on one company a request to update a bank account pending for 4 months - so we were sent cheques to deposit and more worrying an assessment for the Dec 21 vat return which was levied in October 21 and HMRC couldn't work out why and couldn't say that they would collect it and the amount due when the Dec 21 vat return was filed...
What is going to happen when the remaining people start using MTD to file VAT returns?

By rmillaree
25th Feb 2022 10:57
Clearly answering written correspondence is the one thing hmrc should be prioritising - would love to see analysis of total time involved for anything dealt with reasonably primptly compared to anything parked for 6-12 months with all the associated knock on consequnces

By Ammie
25th Feb 2022 11:02
Contacting HMRC for anything is near pointless.

Unfortunately, the system for penalty issue is seamless and very efficient.

I have probably contacted HMRC a dozen times during January, probably lost more than a day in doing so and have only resolved a couple of the issues raised.

They are frustrating to work with yet they find time to commission a "customer" experience survey!

I could go on!