HMRC: Waiting for Dirty Den

 A lot of people seem to think of HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) as an interchangeable hive, like "The Borg" in Star Trek. If there's no-one available from the SATT section, pull someone in from CTD and they'll sort your problem out.

That's not surprising, since it matches the aspiration of the Cabinet Office with its 'One Civil Service' programme where all Civil Servants will eventually be Lego people, working out of five big offices in the larger UK cities.

But we're not there yet. To continue with the TV theme, at the moment HMRC is like a collection of soap operas. While "Coronation Street", "Eastenders" and "Emmerdale" might have common factors (serial killers, for instance), they all have their individual quirks and characteristics. The same applies to the administration of the different taxes and duties. You can't just roll from one to the other. 

If you phone up the Rovers Return, and ask to speak to Sharon Mitchell, you're going to be waiting some time. And if - like some, "I used to be a Tax Inspector" types - you demand to speak to Dirty Den, you're going to be waiting even longer.

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