...except when you owe money.
HMRC (the UK tax office or UK IRS for anyone outside the UK) have made it practically impossible to speak to them on the phone.
There is a live chat option, but apparently the staff who are behind that are all on strike. I have tried using it multiple times before but it never works.
Every few minutes whilst you're on hold, you hear the automated voice telling you that you can go online and do pretty much everything, except the super basic thing you're obviously waiting around to talk about.
It took 1 hour and 15 minutes to get through the other day. I had to update some details which couldn't be changed any other way.
It takes a couple of days for the detail change to update online. At which point I noticed the call handler had made a spelling mistake, even after I'd checked it with them.
Looks like I'm back in the queue tomorrow.