Yes, I am pretty cheesed off that I've received a good service from those pesky HMRCers whenever I've had dealings with them as an employee or on behalf of my employer

Must do worse

If you both send me your National Insurance Numbers I'll let you share my fooked up tax code repayments.

All they need to do is ring 01236 785057 and see if they get a response.

Probably five grand each would do it.

PM me with your bank accounts guys and I'll fill in the direct debits for you.

if we can all skive we will do. even if it the private or public sectors

i know someone who works for a well known retailer and if it is quiet they have been known to watch channel 4 deal or no deal come dine with me and coach trip in the afternoon. on saturday they spent the time watching leeds and football focus sod the punters

Sam, again as for Andy, I'm sorry if I've offended you with my position on this issue, however that doesn't change the experiences I've had on a number of occasions with HMRC.

I have no doubt whatsoever that there are a whole number of reasons why the people working in the Middlesbrough office of HMRC are unable to help me with my queries due to a lack of Training / Management Support / IT Systems, although there is no excuse for the attitude they take when telling you that "any issues are the responsibility of the individual", when all you want to do when calling them is correct any inaccuracies or omissions (usually on their part) so that you are paying the correct amount of tax.

Again of course these same issues occur in the private sector probably as regularly, however the point I would like to make, and that I believe that McF is also trying to make, is that in the private sector there are far greater consequences of poor performance for either the individual or the business. It appears from their attitude that there are still significant numbers of people working in the public sector who do not sufficiently appreciate that they are working in a service industry, and as such need to support their "client" rather than either ignore them or attempt to belittle them.

I'm sure that there are very many supportive and knowledgeable people working in the public sector (just like the private sector) but unfortunately until the front line of pulbic facing personnel are "re-educated" to provide a positive experience for the members of the public with which they interface, the "good guys" will continue their work largely unseen...

Write to them. Its too hard to explain (and get through to) someone with the skills and permissions to alter a PAYE Coding notice or a previous self assessment.

Just don't email them, it will never get there.

The Civil Service is fantastic in some respects, I worked for them for 4 years straight from school, and in the last year I reckon I must have had about 20-25 days 'special leave with pay' to play Rugby League for various teams, dept, region, the civil service national team, including a trip to avignon for a week or so to play some french representative team, all paid for except beer money.

I suspect such trips have long gone though, but they were fun when they lasted.