Sending me council tax reminders, if I think they are scam letters can I use it as my defense.

Anonymous because, I owe tax

The missus got a missed call on her mobe earlier this week. She called back and it was one HMRC's finest querying her self assessment stuff. No nasty or threatening stuff involved, but she tried to verify the caller's authenticity after the radio broke this story yesterday.

First call the the tax bods was an automated system that cut her off. She eventually got through to a human who gave her another number to call and another human with another number .... <snip boring bit> .... and eventually she was able to validate the original call.

Any chance of HMRC briefing their own staff with the correct info or - heaven forbid - an easy to use number being advertised?

Lesson is, as always, don't trust _anyone_ wanting to discuss finances with you. Downside is that HMRC have powers that even the TV licence Gestapo daren't assume.