How HMRC keeps coming up short...

÷ May 3: The Adjudicator’s Office revealed taxpayers who complain about HMRC are having to wait up to a year for a resolution, with a backlog of 1,028 cases.

÷ April 27: MPs on public accounts committee criticised plans to replace 170 tax offices with 13 regional hubs. HMRC wants to save £300million by 2026 and £80million the following year.

÷ February 1: A record number of 143,000 fines were issued to middle class taxpayers who made errors on their returns. HMRC was criticised for penalising what could be innocent mistakes.

÷ January 27: Figures for 2015 showed £1billion less tax was collected from high net worth individuals, those worth £20million or more, in the six years since a task force was set up to crack down on super rich tax dodgers.

÷ January 24: HMRC was ridiculed after claiming in an advert that filing a tax return could bring ‘inner peace’. One taxpayer said: ‘Inner peace. Are you having a laugh? Your website has more crashes than the M25.’