Practical impact of HMRC reorganisation
HMRC have issued a briefing note containing advice related to the recent reduction in the number of HMRC offices that deal with company tax returns.
The reorganisation that caused the reduction in offices started in November 2008 and has resulted in a number of delays in processing returns (especially in the London region). HMRC say that they are currently giving priority to returns where there is an imminent possibility of late-filing penalties being issued. HMRC expect that there may be some further service issues during the peak filing month of December.
HMRC accept that they have had backlogs of post over the last 3 months and claim that the situation is now much improved.
HMRC also ask businesses who are seeking repayments to make this clear by writing the word ‘REPAYMENT’ in red on the front page of form CT600 and to ensure that banking details are correct.
The reorganisation has also resulted in problems when attempting to contact HMRC by telephone. They do not yet currently have call centres for CT calls and admit there are occasions when the volume of calls means they will not be able to answer them all. Agents are encouraged to use the Agents’ Dedicated Lines which should, hopefully, enable queries to be resolved more efficiently.