well the UK system seems to work well I got one rather complex tax situation sorted out with a single phone call.

Previous employer went bust the hard way so I had a couple of tax years where my income was up and down - I rang up got though quickly the operator on the other said ok yes your owed xxxx we can change your taxcode for most of it and for this tax year you will get a refund after the tax year end.

I was expecting to have to take lots of calls and take several months to sort out.