HMRC phone no. Grrr!

ceejayblue

I recently had a tax rebate as I stopped working in June last year and although I'd had rebates last year they'd still charged me tax on my old company's medical insurance and so I was due some money back.

On checking the forms they sent I reaslised that they'd also put me down for £300 tax on the interest on my PO savings account but my tax cert from them shows I only paid £230. Thought I'd call the PO in case I was due another rebate as my earnings were below the tax allowance. I decided to check on SaynotO870 for a proper landline no and found one! Yay, I thought but when I called it there was a recorded message (no surprise) saying that this no. is only for overseas people to call and that I had to call the 0845 no.

Now I have a landline but I have free minutes on my mobile so dialling a landline from my mobile would be cheaper than callilng it on my home phone so my question is are they discriminating against the people in the UK by insisting we use the 0845 no.?

agrinnall

Yes, and it's annoying, but it's hard to know how to get it changed, it's not like you can switch to a different collector of taxes!

Did you hide your number before making the call? I know some organisations still stop you even if you do this, but it may be worth a try.

System

ceejayblue wrote: »

I recently had a tax rebate as I stopped working in June last year and although I'd had rebates last year they'd still charged me tax on my old company's medical insurance and so I was due some money back.

On checking the forms they sent I reaslised that they'd also put me down for £300 tax on the interest on my PO savings account but my tax cert from them shows I only paid £230. Thought I'd call the PO in case I was due another rebate as my earnings were below the tax allowance. I decided to check on SaynotO870 for a proper landline no and found one! Yay, I thought but when I called it there was a recorded message (no surprise) saying that this no. is only for overseas people to call and that I had to call the 0845 no.

Now I have a landline but I have free minutes on my mobile so dialling a landline from my mobile would be cheaper than callilng it on my home phone so my question is are they discriminating against the people in the UK by insisting we use the 0845 no.?

Might sound like a silly question, but if you only paid £230 tax rather than £300 - wouldn't that mean less of a refund, if anything.

JulieM

Do you have free 0845 and 0870 calls on your landline at weekends? If so, you could phone HMRC on Saturday, their web site shows you can phone them between 8am and 4pm.

ceejayblue

ceiberman wrote: »

Might sound like a silly question, but if you only paid £230 tax rather than £300 - wouldn't that mean less of a refund, if anything.

I was just going to ask them a question as the rebate was to do with my old job's medical insurance but in the end I decided to leave it as it is. This is the 3rd rebate in the last year so I'm not complaining! LOL! Just annoyed that they are trying to get us for every penny they can by charging for phone calls!

System

I've come across this question before. Apparently HMRC doesn't make any money off 0845 numbers.


Edit

I knew I'd seen it somewhere

http://taxblogs.co.uk/?p=167

ceejayblue

If they don't make money out of it why insist we have to use it? Seems daft to me!

System

As I understand it 0845 numbers aren't geographically based so they can divert the call anywhere in the country - as they've got call centres all over the UK you just go to the next available adviser - no matter where they are.

I've no idea how the undelying technology works, but that's how it was explained to me.

antonic

HMRC contact centre`s work as a virtual office, so you ring the 0845 number and the system identifes in which office there is an operator free and so your call goes there, even if its Dundee, Bootle Manchester etc.

All offices have access to the same IT systems and so notes by the operator will be visible to anyone who needs to access the records.