By Mark Jones, director of Carmarthen-based Clay Shaw Butler chartered accountants and business consultants.

The taxman at HMRC has always had procedures in place to deal with complaints.

These procedures have now been extended to include an online form which can be used to make complaints about your self-assessment and PAYE.

The guidance also includes other ways to complain.

Of course, if you would like help with PAYE or self assessment issues, please contact us at Clay Shaw Butler.

If you want further information about making a complaint directly to the taxman, then you can go to this website address –  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/complain-to-hm-revenue-and-customs

Here’s what the official Government website has to say about complaints to HMRC –

Examples of things that you might not be happy with are:

• unreasonable delays
• mistakes
• how HMRC have treated you

The advice is to contact the person you’ve been dealing with, or one of the HMRC helplines.

You can make your complaint to HMRC by phoning or writing to the person or office you’ve been dealing with. The phone number will be on any letters we’ve sent you.

Use the online form to make your Income Tax complaint online, or to discuss a complaint you’ve already made.

The complaint must be about Income Tax and you must be either:

• a Self Assessment customer
• an employee who’s had tax taken from your wages
• a pensioner who’s had tax taken from your pension

You’ll need to sign in to, or set up your Government Gateway account.

You can choose how we contact you to resolve your complaint, for example, by email or telephone.

You’ll need your National Insurance number. This is shown on your payslip, P60 or tax return.

Phone or write to the person or office you’ve been dealing with if your complaint isn’t to do with Income Tax (for example, if your complaint is about your VAT, Child Benefit or Tax Credits).

The phone number will be on any letters we’ve sent you.

When you contact us, please give as much information as you can to help us understand and investigate your complaint.

Include:

• your full name, address and contact telephone number
• your reference number, for example your:
• National Insurance number
• tax reference
• VAT registration number or employer reference
• what went wrong
• when it happened
• who you dealt with
• what effect our actions had on you
• how you’d like us to resolve the matter

If you disagree with a tax decision (for example the amount of your tax, or a penalty you’ve been asked to pay) there’s a different process.

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is a different way of dealing with a tax dispute with HMRC. You can apply for ADR if you’ve stopped making progress in your dealings with HMRC.

You can ask someone else to complain for you. This could be a relative, friend or professional adviser.

There are also many voluntary organisations that may be able to help you, such as:

• Citizens Advice Bureau
• TaxAid
• Tax Help for Older People

You’ll need to appoint someone to deal with HMRC on your behalf so we can give that person confidential information about your financial matters.

HMRC won’t treat you any differently because you’ve made a complaint. We’ll deal with your matter fairly and impartially.

When you tell us about your complaint we’ll:

• try to solve the problem and reply to you as quickly as we can
• handle your complaint confidentially and investigate the issues thoroughly
• give you the name and contact details of the person who’s dealing with your complaint
• keep you informed of the progress of our investigation
• let you know who to contact if you’re still unhappy
• If the person, office or helpline you’ve contacted can’t deal with your concerns, they’ll pass your complaint to a customer service adviser.

Ask for your complaint to be passed to a customer service adviser straightaway if you’d prefer not to talk about the matter with the person or office directly.

You can find out more about money matters on the Clay Shaw Butler website (under our news for business section) –

http://www.clayshawbutler.com/news/latest-news-for-business

We have a strong and experienced team with great local knowledge all geared-up to helping you get the very best from your finances – whether that is as an individual or as a business.

We stay ahead of the game by putting great store by continual professional development for our staff.

With Investors In People status at Clay Shaw Butler, we care passionately about making sure our staff have all the tools they need to serve you, our customers.

Weblink –http://www.clayshawbutler.com

The team at Clay Shaw Butler can be contacted on 01267 228500.

The team at Clay Shaw Butler are on Twitter. Look for @clayshawbutler.