GOV.UK Reviews 18

System is broken.

It took 3 phone calls to sort out my tax codes! Eventually spoke to an adviser from complex cases and filled in a P55 form to claim back overpaid tax. She was knowledgable and efficient so credit where it’s due. The other two advisers didn’t have a clue!, I knew more myself.. I received wrong information and told my tax was correct even though I paid around £100 more than I should have on one wage! The 3 stars are for overall performance.The first 2 advisers got no stars at all!

Trying to earn enough to pay debts off but will end up paying high tax band if I try so basically the government wants people in debt . Every year I get a letter saying I owe tax office money , I earn just under 50k and need to work overtime but will put wages up to 60k and will then have to pay more tax so pointless. Will be better off ending it all and wife can get house paid off and life insurance but no doubt the tax office will chase her for that money too . Just too tired to keep trying…..

When incompetent IT try to improve security, they do exactly what this service does: they make a mess so huge that is a miracle if you login and becomes impossible to change your expired phone number without having biometric stuff, credit check, UK passport (that I don't have), etc., etc.
I've chosen credit check + UK driving licence: NOTHING TO DO. They say there is an error despite there isn't any error AT ALL. The error is the project manager they choose to do all this shit. And they are even proabably proud of it! :-)

SOLUTION: I don't use the service anymore. SORTED!
Keep going getting worse and worse... The next step will be to login with a blood sample I suppose. I don't care any more. Get worse as you want.

For the past 3 or 4 months I've been trying to access online personal tax data. I tried following their suggestions on troubleshooting the issue, but nothing's worked. And it's because as you navigate through the website, there's a universal tome of data to read through. Webpage after webpage of information and links that end up taking you nowhere and doing nothing, nada, zilch to help you. So, I phoned three different numbers starting with 0300 and not one hmrc customer assistant helped me with my ongoing, persistent online issue. They'd take my details to verify my identity, then after a brief discussion they say they couldn't help me, and gave me one of 3 phone numbers I'd already called a dozen times before. " customer service agents even cut me off. With one the call connection suddenly went silent and with the second one, he just said, "goodbye" and ended the call. And all I want to do is login to a personal tax account.

In 1969 men walked on the moon, but in 2025 UK tax payers who can't login to their online tax account can't even get the help they sorely need to do so.

I wonder why there's a black economy?

I had to hang on for ages to get through, but that's acceptable. They must be overwhelmed with enquiries. I spoke to a fantastic lady who helped me regarding my NI contributions / pension. I was very confused over details but she was so patient and helpful.
Everything was explained and double checked.
Five star service

Tried to do form online. Would not let me finish post code!

Quick and easy to pay tax, litterally took 1 minute if you click the coorect options.

In order to advise the tax man of a criminals untaxed income I spent an hour filling in a form on the GOV.UK website only toreceive this message when I pressed the submit button -

"Do not report tax fraud, tax avoidance, or enter any personal details using the following services:
webchat
contact us forms
customer feedback forms.
You can report tax fraud or avoidance to HMRC by phone.
There may be long wait times, and HMRC apologise for any inconvenience".

This shows such incompetence and disrespect.
Its little wonder that there is so much tax not collected.

To call this a tax 'service' is laughable. It is a National disgrace. There was a time when you could telephone your local tax office and talk to an experienced and knowledgeable tax inspector about tax rates and tax law, and even your own tax liability. Now, after negotiating a labyrinthine option system, then waiting on hold for thirty minutes and being told "Your call is important to us" sixty seven times, you are put through to an "advisor" who knows absolutely nothing about tax rates - or if she does she is forbidden to disclose it. I did receive a half-hearted admission that the government website was neither clear nor complete on the taxation of trusts, but every specific question was met with either "We cannot give advice on hypothetical situations", or "You will have to consult an accountant about that". The only point of gov.uk call centres seems to be to infuriate the taxpayer.

Very poor service that keeps me in a loop and keeps asking for same information

Shocking service, been trying for a week to get through via telephone, website not got options for my query. So frustrating. Sent complaints by form but still no response. Shameful

It should give more time to enter and check the data before switching to the authorisation page and cleaning all entered.

The only thing admirable is the name. Nothing else. Shame!
Waiting in queue for hours to allow the government to steal my money. Be fair and explain situation with account and waking up that its nothing that can be done for you and that its your responsibility to fix it. Shame on the country and people who manage this country.

took my money to update NI trying to contact them on a 0300 number which is not free for me rang on the loop for 100 minutes whilst my call is apparently important to them it is not important enough to have some one to pick up the phone to talk to me

I attempted self assessment several months ago. Nothing has changed since then.

Even if one manages to break out of endless circles during login the site has confused personal and business accounts. Upon attempting to log into self assessment using either account the site invariably redirects to the other one.

Some security questions are not well posed e.g.
- does opening a personal bank account include opening a junior account for a dependent ?
- the options for taking personal loans do not include never having taken one

The security process is also cumbersome : having submitted passport details, which cannot in my case be incorrect, why resubmit them in case some other part has failed ?

This is deeply frustrating and a huge waste of time. And I suspect I am not alone in my opinion.

Absolutely diabolical website flawed in every way, tells you the information your using is incorrect, it's me I know me, & these are the ppl running the country, turns out the dvla content does not work at the moment, nice of them to let me know in an email, after an hour of trying.