Twits tweeting @ HMRC

Thanks to Nichola Ross Martin 

HMRCcustomers

@HMRCcustomers

Pilot service to help with general queries about HMRC products and services. Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm. No personal info please.

HMRC is encouraging taxpayers to tweet their tax inquiries because its telephone services cannot cope with calls!.

According to the press the move has been ridiculed by some MPs and there are significant issues in respect of taxpayer confidentiality which have not been addressed.

If taxpayers have a twitter account and can fit their query into 140 characters they can try tweeting the query to HMRC at @HMRCcustomers. HMRC says don’t include anything personal.

Yes, you read that correctly …. HMRC telephone services cannot cope with calls.

Excuse me for one minute… AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!

Oh. That’s better. The reason telephone services cannot cope with calls is because HMRC are cutting staff to the bone and have got rid of ALL of their walk in enquiry centres.

The knock on effect of that is that there are insufficient staff to deal with telephone queries. It’s hardly rocket science is it?

I think we can all see where this is going can’t we? It’s all very well for HMRC to state don’t give out any personal information, but you just know it’s going to happen don’t you.

Some poor taxpayer who has been trying to contact HMRC by telephone for days on end, or who has written in  months ago with no response, will in a fit of pique clouded by frustration, tweet their national insurance number or unique taxpayer reference number (self assessment reference) and then it’ll be a case of step right up identity thieves.