HM Revenue and Customs

6. Miss A complains that HMRC misfiled her letter of June 2023 which delayed her filing for self-assessment and has not explained how that happened. She also complains she was often unable to speak to an advisor when she called HMRC.

7. Miss A tells us that because of the delay she missed an opportunity to use the PAYE system to repay the tax owed. This meant she was burdened with having to pay the tax owed in two lump sums which caused her financial difficulties. Miss A tells us she was upset by the events she describes and extremely frustrated with the service she received.

8. Miss A would like HMRC to acknowledge and address the impact on her of having to repay to repay the tax she owed in two lump sums. She would also like an explanation of how her letter was misfiled.

9. In June 2023, Miss A wrote to HMRC to explain that she had a pension from the Republic of Ireland and needed to register for self-assessment to complete a tax return.

10. Miss A called HMRC on a few occasions to find out what was happening but was on hold for a significant time on each call and on the occasions she did connect the call handler could not hear her and hung up.

11. She did connect with a call handler in a call in early November 2023. They explained that her letter had been misfiled and they would arrange for it to be brought to the attention of a technician who worked with double taxation (where a person has earnings that could be taxed in two countries). A technician called her back a few days later, set her up on the system for self-assessment and issued a paper self-assessment return form to her. She returned that form in Mid-January 2024.

12. Miss A asked if she could pay the tax over the next 12-month tax period but was told she would need to make the payment in two lump sums. She then complained to HMRC. It upheld her complaint about the service she had received. She took her complaint to the Adjudicator’s Office (the AO) who, after investigation came to the same findings.

13. Miss A then brought her complaint to our Office in September 2025.

Misfiled her letter and phone issues

15. We see that HMRC acknowledged the poor customer service of the delay in responding to Miss A’s letter and the difficulties she experienced trying to speak with a call handler. For this reason, we have not re-examined these points, instead concentrating on how this impacted her and whether enough has been done to put this right.

16. Miss A says that because of the delay she missed an opportunity to use the PAYE system to repay the tax owed. This meant she was burdened with having to pay the tax owed in two lump sums which caused her financial difficulties. Miss A tells us she was upset by the events she describes and extremely frustrated with the service she received.

17. We asked HMRC if, without the delay in responding to the letter, Miss A would likely not have missed the deadline to file.

18. It explained that, when responding to her letter it would have also completed the registration for self-assessment on its systems. However, it also explained to us that ‘there is no fixed timescale requiring HMRC to issue a Self-Assessment tax return following registration. Registration does not create a legal filing obligation.

19. A legal requirement to file a return arises only once HMRC issues a formal Notice to File. The timing of issuing a Notice to File depends on the customer’s circumstances and HMRC’s processing, and legislation does not specify a fixed period within which this must occur after registration.’

20. So, while we do sympathise with Miss A’s position and understand why she was upset that she did not get to file before the deadline, we cannot say on the balance of probabilities that had the letter been responded to sooner she would still have met that deadline to file. We appreciate this will be disappointing for Miss A.

21. We note Miss A made several phone calls to HMRC and we appreciate it would be frustrating to be kept on hold for long periods or for calls to abruptly end. We also recognise it would be upsetting and disappointing to hear a letter was not properly handled.

22. We looked at what action HMRC has taken to put this right. When considering how it should remedy any mistakes it has made that have resulted in an injustice to a customer, HMRC refers to its CRG. It says:

23. ‘Our payments for worry and distress are meant to be a token - a way of acknowledging that our mistakes and delays have affected someone badly. They are not akin to damages and payment does not, in any way, amount to an admission of any legal liability. The payments will usually range between £25 and £500, but experience shows that the vast majority of payments are at the lower end of this range’.

24. We have seen that HMRC apologised to Miss A and made a payment to her of £175 in recognition of the ‘poor customer service’. This is in line with its CRG.

25. We see Miss A experienced upset and frustration for around five months. We are sorry to see this. We expect this would not have a lasting impact on Miss A and would be able to live a relatively normal life. This means the impact is in line with Level 2 on our Severity of Injustice scale.

26. We therefore find the £175 payment and apologies puts right the impacts caused by the poor customer service and will take no further action. We wish Miss A all the best.

1. We have carefully considered Miss A’s complaint about HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

2. We are sorry to hear of the upset and frustration she experienced because of a delay to her registration letter being processed and her calls to HMRC not being successful after long waits.

3. We have seen that HMRC acknowledged the poor service, so we have focussed on looking at what actions it has taken to remedy the impact of that.

4. We have seen that HMRC has acknowledged and apologised for the delay in dealing with her letter and for the phone line difficulties and offered a financial remedy of £175 to address the impact on her. This is in line with its remedy guidance and our guidance on financial remedy.

5. Based on what we have seen, we will not take any further action on this complaint. We explain in more detail below how we reached this decision.