Gripe of the day - What is yours?

[admin]

Off to the tyre shop today. Got a puncture on day one of my bike trip. I can't find the cause or the hole so couldn't plug it. Finilec solved the problem.
Now home and conducted a thorough look with wheel off, still no clue. Valve maybe?
Anyhow I'm a cat's whisker off the wear indicator so replacement makes more sense.

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[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Littlepeahead

Went for a walk at a country park yesterday and every bird within a ten mile radius must have decided to neck a gallon of prune and mushy pea juice then empty their bowels over my previously clean car.

Just wait until the blackberries and elderberries are ripe

[Chris_SVS]

Back to the gym today after a month away due to minor resolved niggle. GOTD is how incapable of movement I'll be tomorrow

[SV650rules]

Grounded with Gout for last 3 days - still not out of it, seems all the things you like are bad for you. Bacon, Beer ( in fact any alcohol), Ham, Beef, lamb ( any red meat really) most shellfish and all the tasty fish ( Mackerel, sardines, salmon ) and anything with sugar, including most fruit.... even some vegetables have 'purines' ( the bad things ) in them.

Oh well, drink another litre of water and tuck into boiled chicken again

[Seeker]

HMRC. I thought the IRS in the US was bad but HMRC seem worse.

I asked HMRC a question whether I needed to sign up for tax self assessment. The lady I spoke to didn't know the answer, read off to me what was on the website which I'd already read and, without me asking, signed me up for self assessment.
I get a UTR (unique tax payer ref) in the mail, 2 days later I get a letter reminding me to complete my self assessment (for 2018/19) and I should do it on line. I already have a Gov gateway number and password so I log in and select self assessment. Have I enrolled for SA? (it asked), I try "yes" but it requires me to log in with my self assessment password. (I don't have one), so I say "no" and it tells me it will mail a code for me in 10 days. What was wrong with the Gov gateway code? Why can I enter my details on line but can't get a code sent electronically, especially since they just sent a code to my phone to allow me into the Gov gateway?
This is like the movie "Brazil".

[Bibio]

Seeker..

do you have a UK national insurance number?
if the answer is yes then you are entitled to state pension if you live in this country at retirement age.

are you self employed?
if the answer is no then why are you signing up for self assessment?

i dont know if you still can but at one time you could walk into your local tax office and get an interview.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by Bibio

Seeker..

do you have a UK national insurance number?
if the answer is yes then you are entitled to state pension if you live in this country at retirement age.

are you self employed?
if the answer is no then why are you signing up for self assessment?

i dont know if you still can but at one time you could walk into your local tax office and get an interview.

You have to sign up for self assessment if you receive more than £300 of foreign income and my pension comes from the US and is just sitting below the tax threshold (it only started late last year). There are, according to the gov website, different rules for foreign income versus foreign pensions. The website doesn't explain the difference and the lady I spoke to in HMRC didn't know either but she signed me up for SA. Apparently, signing up and enrolling are not the same thing which is why I was thwarted yesterday when attempting to reach the SA forms.
The US pension can be claimed, at a reduced rate, from the age of 62 which is what I did. I do have a NI number and I am entitled to a partial UK pension from the age of 66 (I don't have full NI contributions and attempting to pay catch up contributions was another HMRC can of worms which I eventually abandoned after 6 months of trying, this was explained in my HMRC gripe last year!). I am sure that HMRC employees are not incompetent but the difficulty of speaking to someone quickly (I think that waiting in excess of 22 minutes is too long), the fact that they don't have an email connection (viruses perhaps?) makes dealing with them frustrating. In the case of catch up contributions, I wasn't allowed to speak to anyone in that department (since I'd been out of the country, if I'd missed them when I was in the UK it would have been different). After months, they sent a letter asking for more info and informing me that if I'd supplied a phone number they could have called me (my phone number was on a cover letter).

There is, apparently, a tax office in Grimsby but when you look it up it says:
"Please do not write to or visit this office". They do have a phone number maybe I'll give them a call, although (in theory) the code allowing me to access the SA forms should be now snail-mailing its way towards me. I did notice that the reviews for the Gy tax office were from 2 years ago. (edit: it closed 2 years ago)

[Bibio]

the other thing you can do is make an appointment for the citizens advice and they will tell you exactly what you need to do and how to do it.

[Littlepeahead]

I feel morbidly obese. See smile of the day thread for explanation.

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[maviczap]

Flickr
They were messing about with it the other week. Today I've gone to my camera roll, only to find its now the same as my photo stream!
What used to be a great photo hosting site is a pile of poo