Only a year late, but I'd agree with that.

In my case, I'm here with my family, permanent job, no UK house etc., so I declared myself to HMRC as non-resident and then tried to get a refund on my taxed savings interest, under the UK/Swiss double taxation agreement. Adding more difficulty was the fact that I wanted split year treatment for the part of the year when I moved here.

When I moved over here, HMRC gave you the impression that they were there to help with any aspects of filling out UK tax returns etc. even for non-residents.

In reality, it took countless letters, phone calls and anguish to get it sorted out because the helpline staff are just like any other call centre staff, they have the minimal knowledge of HMRC policy, you never get the same person twice and no-one owns your specific case.

Even when you get past the help desk support to the 'managers' they don't know HMRC policy either. I was told that the guidelines and rules are there and it's your problem to sort through them and present your case to them, which they will consider and either agree to or reject.

It seems that there are a handful of top HMRC tax people who write the rulebooks and return sheets, but that's your lot, the rest are box checkers.

In my case, when I eventually submitted the right forms, after a couple of rejects with very little explanation, I got the result I wanted - my tax repaid.

This year, I copied last years return and hopefully it'll not be a problem.

Phil