Soft landing for late paper returns
22 Oct 08
I know that a few members are experiencing some difficulties with online filing for self-assessment this year so when I was in Revenue and Customs' 100 Parliament Street headquarters recently, I took the opportunity to talk to Stephen Banyard, HMRC’s Senior Responsible Officer for the Carter Programme, which is charged with implementing universal electronic filing of tax returns by businesses and IT literate individuals by 2012
by Derek Allen, ICAS Director of Taxation
That in itself is a fairly daunting objective, but if that is not enough Stephen is also director of HMRC’s Business Customer Unit, charged with understanding HMRC’s business customers, and with particular responsibility for improving HMRC’s service to agents, accountants and SMEs. So how does he feel the Carter Programme is progressing? “Pretty much on course” is Stephen’s view. “We have delivered what we said we would: heavy investment in new infrastructure to give greater resilience and greater capacity for the peak, and a new tax return. And it is working – the number of online filers is up by 25 per cent, we passed the “million mark” several weeks earlier than in 2007 and the new HMRC online return has a very high filing success rate.”
He was also keen to point out, however, that he is aware that some agents are having problems filing online this year, and he wanted to talk to me about HMRC’s response to that. But first, I asked him what is causing the problems. “Some of it is due to lack of familiarity with the new return. The new look paper return, new HMRC online application and the new 31 October deadline for paper returns are part of the biggest changes to self-assessment for over a decade,” he says. He also believes that given the scale of change it is not surprising that there have been some implementation issues with the IT validation process. But he was sorry for the issues some people have experienced and was grateful for their patience.
There is a lot of change going on, but Stephen is very clear about his main objective. “Our goal is to encourage agents and accountants to file their clients’ returns online - and we want to make that as easy as possible. We don’t want transitional issues to get between us and that goal”. He goes on to explain that HMRC are working closely with software developers and tax agents on these issues.
Most developers, he says, have been implementing the necessary changes. Some have already completed this and others will do so in the next few weeks. So there should be a real improvement for all users of commercial software before the end of October – though, of course, it’s important that agents download their developers software updates. Stephen’s team have also worked with tax agents on a short, plain English guide to dealing with the more common problems.
And he asks me to reassure members that HMRC will not penalise people who find that they cannot file online after 31 October due to a problem with their software or the online service. “Let me emphasise that we will not penalise people in such cases. If members do need to claim reasonable excuse for late filing, as a backstop we have put in place a simple new process, using a distinctive form produced by Working Together which you can use if you wish to - you can find it on the HMRC website soon.”
This is just the start of the Carter Programme which can be broken down into four key phases – SA this year, PAYE in 2009, VAT in 2010 and Corporation Tax in 2011. I will be back to talk to Stephen on behalf of ICAS about progress in these other areas in the new year.