HMRC Response

corky2

Start a complaint. 

https://www.gov.uk/complain-about-hmrc

Complain by phone or post

You can also complain by phone or post. You’ll need:

• your National Insurance number, Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) or VAT number
• your full name, address and phone number
• details of what happened and when
• to say how you’d like your complaint resolved

But there are experts on here so once you have sent your complaint letter, I suggest you get the experts on here to look at the tax bill and see if it's correct? 

sheramber

Why is your letter more important than any others waiting in the same queue , which may have been received before yours. 

Correspondence is scanned and logged on computer. Officers are allocated post each day. 

I don’t know if it possible to extract one out of the list.

molerat

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/taxpayers-face-nightmare-hmrc-meltdown-132127665.html

The tax authority has also resorted to putting in place a special team to work through a backlog of thousands of letters which have gone unanswered for a year.

It comes as the tax office is hit with reports of poor service quality and mounting delays while thousands of staff work Monday to Friday from home.

RandomUser923759

sheramber said:

Why is your letter more important than any others waiting in the same queue , which may have been received before yours. 

Correspondence is scanned and logged on computer. Officers are allocated post each day. 

I don’t know if it possible to extract one out of the list.

I am merely voicing that a letter sent in April should surely have been responded to. 

[Deleted User]

HMRC has, as already outlined by other posters, a considerable backlog of post which means it could take months to reply a letter.

Your Personal Tax Account will show when your letter was received and there is a link to see when to expect a reply.

I claimed a refund of National Insurance Contributions in April. I received a reply last month confirming the amount I had claimed was correct.

I needed to provide bank details for HMRC to make the refund. I sent these to them immediately and checked my personal account a few days ago to see it will take another six months until that letter will receives attention.

Other posters have tried to establish if the nature your dispute is a matter which may justify urgent attention and advise accordingly.

It seems you will just have to wait your turn in the queue.

sheramber

RandomUser923759 said:

sheramber said:

Why is your letter more important than any others waiting in the same queue , which may have been received before yours. 

Correspondence is scanned and logged on computer. Officers are allocated post each day. 

I don’t know if it possible to extract one out of the list.

I am merely voicing that a letter sent in April should surely have been responded to. 

In an ideal world ( or in the past) it would’ve dealt within 7 days but we are no longer in that ideal world 

RandomUser923759

[Deleted User] said:

HMRC has, as already outlined by other posters, a considerable backlog of post which means it could take months to reply a letter.

Your Personal Tax Account will show when your letter was received and there is a link to see when to expect a reply.

I claimed a refund of National Insurance Contributions in April. I received a reply last month confirming the amount I had claimed was correct.

I needed to provide bank details for HMRC to make the refund. I sent these to them immediately and checked my personal account a few days ago to see it will take another six months until that letter will receives attention.

Other posters have tried to establish if the nature your dispute is a matter which may justify urgent attention and advise accordingly.

It seems you will just have to wait your turn in the queue.

I was told by hmrc i'd be responded to by July. Every time I chat to them they literally say to me that they've escalated it to the relevant team and I will get a response in 3-5 days.

I am due over 5K refunded in this dispute - fairly sure it is understandable that I am concerned at a letter I sent in April.

Strummer22

Probably best to raise a formal complaint then, see previous poster’s advice on how to do that.

MattMattMattUK

RandomUser923759 said:

Curiousguy said:

HMRC has, as already outlined by other posters, a considerable backlog of post which means it could take months to reply a letter.

Your Personal Tax Account will show when your letter was received and there is a link to see when to expect a reply.

I claimed a refund of National Insurance Contributions in April. I received a reply last month confirming the amount I had claimed was correct.

I needed to provide bank details for HMRC to make the refund. I sent these to them immediately and checked my personal account a few days ago to see it will take another six months until that letter will receives attention.

Other posters have tried to establish if the nature your dispute is a matter which may justify urgent attention and advise accordingly.

It seems you will just have to wait your turn in the queue.

I was told by hmrc i'd be responded to by July. Every time I chat to them they literally say to me that they've escalated it to the relevant team and I will get a response in 3-5 days.

I am due over 5K refunded in this dispute - fairly sure it is understandable that I am concerned at a letter I sent in April.

I think that everyone on here agrees that HMRC's response times are far from ideal, but there is also nothing that can be done about them at the moment, nor is there a way to bypass them. Remember that the Self Assessment phone line was unavailable for most of August and completely shut in September. 

You have yet to answer why you think you are due a refund of £5k, if you explain that then people may be able to help. It is highly unlikely that even when your letter is processed by HMRC you will receive a refund as the issue of why/if there is a potential overpayment needs to be dealt with, either by submission of a correct self assessment that supersedes the previous one, or following the dispute mechanism if they have disallowed a cost etc. You should be able to resolve most of those problems via the HMRC website rather than writing letters to them. If you can explain why you think you are due a £5k refund then there are many knowledgeable people on this site who would be able to guide you towards the best course of action.