# tax offices..no face to face enquiries anymore.



## postman pat (19 Jan 2013)

I called to my local tax office (Blackpool,Cork) to meet a tax official to discuss my tax credits etc. To my dismay i was told there are no more face to face enquiries anymore, only by ROS online or by phone, there are some nice green plants where the kiosks and counter staff used to be!
Anyway i tried the online option,it said i made a mistake and said i couldnt proceed and to phone my local tax office,trouble is its saturday evening and no body"s in!
i will have to wait till monday apparently and try and phone them,should be interesting.
They slipped this one in under the wire i think..i will probably get the hang of it sometime but what about older people etc they are bound to struggle.

 Pat


----------



## leroy67 (19 Jan 2013)

Recently had experience with this, on the automated service say none of these options and you are put through to a human !!!


----------



## mandelbrot (19 Jan 2013)

Welcome to the world of Croke Park Pat - customer service costs money.

Under the CPA Revenue has committed to:

http://www.revenue.ie/en/about/publications/revised-action-plan-2012.pdf
"Flexible deployment of resources from customer services and transactional processing to compliance and debt management",

"Customer Contact Reduction Project focussing initially on PAYE customer contacts",

and to reduce staff numbers from 6,581 in 2009 to 5,774. By 1 March 2012 this number was already down to 5,732.

There is no real reason why you shouldn't be able to deal with any issues / queries with Revenue over the phone or online, saving everyone time and money. If something arose that couldn't be dealt with over the phone somehow, you could probably arrange to meet someone.


----------



## postman pat (19 Jan 2013)

so you are saying Mandelbrot taxes go up and services go down ...a novel idea!... but what i am saying is it can be difficult to explain stuff online or on the phone,anyway i guess its progress...


----------



## Gervan (19 Jan 2013)

I find this astonishing, that one cannot talk face to face any more. 
I often struggle on the phone to understand what is being said to me, (perhaps the Cork accent) and facial expressions are a big help. What about people who are hard of hearing? 
If it is "progress" it is towards a soulless, machine managed future, which is a very depressing thought. We need human contact, even Revenue officials do, surely.


----------



## Sue Ellen (20 Jan 2013)

Its quite sad really but the same with the banks and other organisations, most things will have to be done online with the regular closure of branches.


----------



## idler (20 Jan 2013)

going the same way as revenue in north!having worked for a contractor i received p/ment less 20% but no receit.   unable to gt reciets i  contacted tax office to    verify that my tax had been payed in, was told info could not be divulged  and no i could not meet anyone face to face--advisd to file returns at end of year then i would know!! how civil was that servant


----------



## Time (20 Jan 2013)

Even in the north you are entitled to your tax records. Data protection covers it.


----------

