A London council has caused a stir by using "crying face" emojis on residents’ tax statements.
Lambeth Council sent tax statements informing residents of their “amounts due” illustrated with emoji faces in floods of tears.
One resident, Alice Jones, shared a screen grab of her online bill on Twitter with the caption: “Not sure about Lambeth’s use of emojis on my council tax bill.”
Alongside the notice which explained that Ms Jones owed an instalment of £112 next month were three crying faced emojis.
Ms Jones added: "The annoying thing is I'm all paid up."
Another user, Jane Merrick, joked that she wanted “clap” emojis to appear on completing her tax return, adding “I have a little monkey with his hands over his eyes on my bank statements.”
But the TaxPayers' Alliance said taxpayers should be entitled to "a ceratin level of professionalism".
John O’Connell, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said: “This will certainly raise eyebrows. Taxpayers are entitled to expect a certain level of professionalism in their councils' communication with them and this letter is certainly pushing the boundaries.
“I doubt if many families struggling to keep up with their ever-rising council tax bill would be able to see the funny side of it."
A Lambeth council spokesman confirmed the emojis appeared due to a technical glitch which has since been sorted.
He said: “The emojis appeared on council tax notices when accessed on iPhones, due to the way certain software interprets the coding.
“This was an error and it has now been rectified.”
