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I'm currently on the phone to the tax office, but I have plenty of time to type this. Why? Am I not listening to their sage advice and instead choosing to adopt a cavalier attitude to my responsibilities? No, it's because I couldn't find out where on the online tax return to enter my payments on account for 2007-08. I called the local tax office and a very patient lady called Bernadette walked me through page after page. However, the box I need is plainly missing from my onscreen return while being visible on hers. I'm on hold while she shouts at a consultant from the company who implemented the online tax return system.
Calmly expressing her obvious frustration, the saintly Bernadette has just returned to tell me that the version of the tax return system she can see on her screen is different to the one used by the rest of us. The box I need has indeed been removed from the public version and payments on account are instead taken care of automatically.
She also apologised for the system running slowly, and theorised that it's because so many people are using it today. The reason seems to be that they've sent out a lot of letters telling people they need to pay some tax, but not telling them how much, so they're all calling in.
Brilliant. Just brilliant. Chalk two points up to the consultants.
