Just which tax office is writing to you?

John_Pierpoint

I seem to write to tax office A and get a reply from tax office B (weeks and weeks later). Tax office B being hundreds of miles away from tax office A however on analysing the tax office "number" (nothing to do with 'phones) which is the first three digits 321/xxxxxxx of the reference in the reply.
It would seem that both offices A & B are working on behalf of office C as revealed by decoding the the figures 321.

Code checker is here:
EG:

321
decodes to:

Telephone opening hours:
8.00 am to 8.00 pm, Monday to Friday
8.00 am to 4.00 pm Saturday

Postal address:
Customer Operations
Lynx House
1 Northern Road
Cosham
Portsmouth
PO6 3XA We do not necessarily have an Enquiry Centre at this address. Details of your nearest Enquiry Centre can be found on the Enquiry Centre Locator.

chrismac1

Yes it would be hard to design a stupider more chaotic system. I have one client who has had letters from 7 different tax offices, !!!!!! is that?

Gas_Powered_Toothbrush

Given that the old regional databases have been shut down and it's one nationwide database these days, it makes literally no difference which office's address happens to be on the letters sent out. Especially since all post is now centralised.

John_Pierpoint

Does HMRC still keep the paper or is everything scanned into this massive data base?

I feel deprived only 3 offices writing to me about records originally held at a 4th (overloaded?) office.

I find it impossible to empathise with the people who have the job of replying to a months old letter; especially when the reply was time critical and needed to meet the 31st January tax payment deadline.

Ah well stand by for a reconciliation query and perhaps an attempt to fine me 100 GBP. because the system cannot find the tax I've paid.