All tax query centres for HMRC set to close
HM Revenue and Customs will close all 281 of its inquiry centres nationwide, including branches in the Black Country and Staffordshire, under new plans to save £13million a year.
HMRC wants to replace the centres with a telephone service and home visits. The move puts 1,300 jobs at risk across the country.
Branches which deal with face-to-face inquiries in Wolverhampton, Brierley Hill, Walsall, Stafford and Birmingham are among those facing the axe.
Thirteen in the North East of England will shut in June as part of a pilot scheme. A public consultation will then be held on the future of the remaining centres, with any closures taking place in 2014.
The consultation closes on May 21 and the results will considered end of July. Between April and September, meetings held with staff potentially at risk. Bosses today said they would try to redeploy workers wherever possible.
The local centres are at Tettenhall Road, Wolverhampton, Brierley Hill’s Waterfront, Greyfriars in Stafford; Midland Road, Walsall, and Union Street, Birmingham. The HMRC refused to say today how many staff are employed in each of those branches.
Bosses say the number of people using the enquiry centres across the UK had halved from five million in 2005-06 to 2.5 million in 2011-12.
Each visit costs the service £152 on average, according to HMRC, but it said four out of five queries could have been solved on the telephone or online.
Chief executive Lin Homer said: “HMRC is dedicated to providing help to customers who need it. This new service will enable us to tailor that help in a way that works better for customers and is more flexible and affordable than the service we currently provide.
“We will give a more specialised phone service for customers whose affairs can be resolved over the telephone, and face-to-face help to those who need it, visiting them at a place convenient to them, saving them both travel and time. HMRC will provide a more modern and accessible service that will target the right support to customers.”
The move has sparked anger from unions.
PCS regional secretary for the Midlands Andrew Lloyd said: “Closing offices in local communities means we will break the link between public services and the general public.”
Comments for: "All tax query centres for HMRC set to close"
Danny Jones
Used to be self employed before my business took a turn for the worse and I lost everything, during the last tax year I did about 3 weeks work at the beginning of the tax year before my business went under, I have been on jobseekers allowance since trying to get back on track. I've been extremely depressed and in a very fragile mental and emotional state since losing my business, bills mounting up that I'm unable to pay.
So last week I receive a £100 fine from HMRC for not filling in my tax return when they know full well my business went under and I earnt nothing, made no profit at all and was on benefits most of the tax year, still they refuse to accept this and are only interested in collecting as much money from me as they can, money I do not have and cannot afford, maybe they want me to stop eating for a couple of months so I can pay this bogus fine, these people make me absolutely sick to the stomach, they are not their to help anybody, only to try and scam as much money as they can from people in my position, absolutely disgusted with them.
chris
I feel for you mate,they are too busy chasing the self-emloyed for hundreds of pounds or couple of thousands and then they let the multi-national companies escape paying any tax at all,and they are the only ones making any real profit.
tracey
I have never heard something so rediculous , no regional tax office ! More people out of work, for gods sack we need to get this government OUT , and find someone with some common sense instead of a degree in distruction.
simonDarby
It's spelt ridiculous, 'for Gods sakE' and dEstruction.
I do agree the Government is a joke, only problem is there is no other reasonable party to take their place, they will all sell their own mothers and lie through their teeth to get into power, tell you whatever it takes to get your vote then once they get their foot through the door it's the same as always, they are nothing more than a bunch of puppets, those pulling the strings are hidden behind the scenes, mankind is doomed.
David
Seems pretty sensible to me. All tax returns can be done online. If there's a query, you can call.
It amazes me there isn't more of this done. For example, my council tax and fit card. Both handled by snail mail - why can't you just do it online?
We need to move with the times. The internet's been ubiquitous for 10 years. You can even get a good connection on your phone!
We need to be faster and more efficient as a country if we want to work off the debt mountain Labour left us with.
Pete
NO TAX OFFICES = NO QUERIES. Its bad enough with energy companies and local councils going to to telephone only enquiries and automated systems. I don't suppose chief exec Lin Homer will be part of these cuts coming out with statements like she has, it's easy to say when the axe isn't being ground for you. She may even get a nice pay rise or a bonus on the back of it. Surely with the amount of taxes being paid it should back these facilities whatever they do. This is like the cuts to the H.S.E senseless. cut down on the inspectors and it cuts down on visits to workplaces, less places to get warning's on health and safety matters,cut down on police and get more crime etc. There will be more tax avoidance from now knowing the big bad wolf is not snarling at the door !!!!
SMKP
Having just had over £24000 misallocated by these muppets and now getting a fine I have little sympathy for HMRC - Sooner these idiots get sorted out the better !
sisterdora
David
Have you tried ringing the tax office? most of the time you can't get through - hang on for 20 minutes and then the line goes dead( this can go on several times) - speak to someone who" hasn't got the file", or whose "colleague is dealing with it" and will ring you back but they don't .................. Often the only way to get any sense out of banks, insurance companies, tax offices is to physically go and talk to someone and give documents if necessary AND get receipts for them.
Not all of the Uk population is online anyway - but for heaven's sake - how much will it cost in expenses for home visits and how many home visits will get done in a day?
wolfy
A quick tip for phoning HMRC.
Phone from your own landline and you will be on phone for ages.
Go into a tax office use their phone and its answered promptly.
Don't worry that their closing these centres as Jobcentre plus has facilities for calling HMRC.
'
Why don't they just tell us, that they are slowly going to make everbody in the country redundant to bring in lower wages.
2013
WHY DON'T THEY JUST TELL US THAT THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE EVERYBODY IN THE COUNTRY REDUNDANT TO BRING IN LOWER WAGES.
Then people would be able to make plans for the future!
Ian
I think some of the previous writers are missing the point of the article. They appear to be venting their own frustrations about getting penalties or a poor service from the tax office.
These closures are about REAL people people that will be affected by these proposed closures - whether that be the 1,300 HMRC personnel will lose their jobs, or the 1.5 million per annum of people who rely on the tax office doors being open in order that they can go in and speak to a human being and be given some advice.
Don't let your own bitter stance reflect from the fact that there are about 10million people who need to file a tax return, but I would guess probably 3 times that amount that don;t do tax returns but have income and may need help at some time or other from the tax office.
So where do the people who can't afford accountants and tax advisers go now?
Don't let the spin and rhetoric from HM Revenue & Customs fool or appease you that they will provide a domestic visit service to the vulnerable or those who need help.
If they can't provide an open-door service for financial reasons and cost-cutting purpose, do you honestly believe that they are going to send a representative in a car to your house instead?
Get real.
This plug is being pulled.
Joe Public won't know that this valuable service has gone until they turn up at a locked-up tax office building looking for a bit of help.
Ian
Having read again the numbers that HMRC are saying in their press release and is being widely reported in the media, HMRC say that some 2.5million vistors use the service and that works out at a cost of £152 per visit. (That's their numbers, nt mine).
I calculate therefore that they are saying that the cost of these 138 tax centres is £380million.
Given that they probably pay very little to the work-force they are either not telling us the truth or they are paying way too much for their rent and electricity.
Those figures would equate to an average of £1.3 million per annum for each tax enquiry office, manned by about a half dozen personnel, if you are lucky.
I see that they are also saying the number of visitors halved.
Could that be because they had lready closed some enquiry offices and many of those kept open had their opening hours cut or reduced from 5 days to only 2 or 3 days a week?
Either my calculator has gone wonky or something from HMRC just doesn't add up.
Maybe it's time those at the top of the tax office came out and told us some truths?
IAN