HMRC breaks silence after workers 'taxed on money they haven't earned'

A HMRC fraud alert has been issued after a man paid tax on money he never earned and waited months for response. The man contacted customer support at HMRC over X, formerly Twitter, begging for help over the situation.

The Twitter user, who BirminghamLive isn't naming, said: "I have been struggling for weeks to get a response to a PAYE issue caused by another company using my NI number. Currently being taxed to repay tax for money I have not earned and need support please."

He said: "Someone at HMRC needs to take responsibility for this mistake and contact me as every time I tried contacting yesterday I was told your were too busy and cut off." He added: "I have contacted the helpline several times with no luck or the line cuts off, I need a way to escalate this."

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He added: "No one is taking responsibility for an issue I can only claim as my NI being used fraudulently." HMRC responded to the taxpayer on social media by saying: "As we are a general advice service we can't access records to check this for you I'm afraid."

"Are you not able to escalate this for someone to contact and look into this?" the taxpayer shot back. "It is pretty awful the amount of time and effort I have already had to put in to resolving this. HMRC should have fixed this last year and my tax records show it was."

"I need someone to reach out to me urgently on this as your contact routes clearly are not working," he added. HMRC replied: "I suggest that you keep trying to contact the helpline and an adviser will be able to assist you as soon as they are available. The other option would be to write in. Amandine"

"I’m sorry but that’s really not acceptable the amount of time I have spent already. I need someone to come back to me I had an email advising a change to my tax code on Sunday but no a changes are on my account," he wrote.

He added: "Every time I contact I get nowhere so I need someone to come back to me and start taking this seriously before I look at involving my local MP"