Anyone who has ever had any dealings with the tax office at HMRC knows just how irritating it is to be annoyed and patronised by people who believe the general public are essentially very stupid and clearly in the wrong, while the Revenue themselves are perfect in every way.

Recent fiascos over the wrong tax codes being sent out have proven just how wrong this is, and the latest twist is that yet more of the wrong codes have been distributed - these ones potentially forcing you to overpay £2,500 in tax.

So what has happened, and are you at risk?

It's another case of the wrong codes being sent out by the computer system This time those at risk include anyone with a company car, which may have been taxed twice by the wrong codes.

There are also problems for about half a million people who started claiming their state pension this year and may have been overtaxed.

Meanwhile, married couples or civil partners over the age of 76 could lose an allowance worth almost £700.

For the least lucky, these mistakes could add up to £216 a month to your tax bill.

It's a shocking level of incompetence for a new computer system that was supposed to make things more simple. It begs the question of how this was allowed to happen, and it goes to show that the Revenue should think twice about issuing terse notes and being generally rude and unhelpful to customers who may well be ringing because of a blunder by the government organisation.

So what can you do if you are worried about overpaying?

Sadly the only solution is to ring your tax office and talk it through with a member of staff. You can use this part of the Revenue website to find your tax office details, or ask your employer.

And if you ring, just make sure you don't take any flack from these people. They have made a mistake, they are in the wrong, and it's about time they started treating the taxpayer with some respect and apologising for it.