Don’t hold back

KEY POINTS

• Who deals with complaints?
• Financial compensation.
• Complain or move on?
• Look at the facts.

When HMRC have acted mistakenly and unreasonably several remedies are potentially available. This article focuses on HMRC’s complaints process and how it complements (and can be used effectively alongside) the legal avenues of judicial review and the tribunals.

Three tiers

HMRC have a three-tier complaints process. The first two are handled within the relevant HMRC Business Unit.

Tier 1 is HMRC’s first attempt to resolve the complaint and it is their stated policy to attempt to resolve as many complaints as they can at that level.

Next comes tier 2. If the complainant remains dissatisfied he can ask HMRC to look at the complaint again. A different HMRC officer will handle the tier...