Government Bureaucracy (by alaric)
I created a limited company in... 2000 or so, for various reasons. At the time, I was advised that a director and shareholder would probably be expected to fill in self-assessment tax returns, but that I needn't worry, HMRC would send me one when they wanted me to do it.
Anyway, apart from a latter in 2004 or so saying that they might be sending me one, I've never been sent one yet.
But last week I got a letter saying I'd not sent in my 2005/2006 one (due in by the end of Jan 2007), all demanding it and threatening fines, so I went to the local tax enquiry office to enquire. The nice lady there said I'd need to ring the order line to get the tax return form to send in, and pointed me at a phone in the corner.
So I rang up, and the person at the far end said they couldn't send out return forms for previous years, so I'd have to ask at my local tax office for one. I explained I was already there and that they'd asked me to ring her. "Well, I can't. Talk to them," she said. So I went back to the lady I'd been talking to and explained. "Oh, OK, I'll get you one," she says, and produces a tax return form and gives it to me.
If she could have done that in the first place, why send me to the phone?!?
Wed 9th May 2007 10:29 am 
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By Flo, Thu 10th May 2007 @ 3:53 am
Hey good luck filling those out...you're lucky, some people can't get the forms and then get fined for not having them!
By sarah, Thu 10th May 2007 @ 4:53 pm
The whole things ludricous anyway - we have a £100 fine they are expecting us to pay for a form we never recieved and were origonally told they would send to us when we needed it - the fine was the first we'd heard of the non existant forms!