§ Baroness Noakesasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the current performance of their systems to accept income tax returns filed online is satisfactory; and whether they are prepared to extend the filing deadlines for those taxpayers who have been unable to file their returns online due to unavailability of the Inland Revenue's facilities. [HL1021]
§ Lord McIntosh of HaringeyThe Inland Revenue is generally satisfied with the performance of its systems to accept tax returns filed online. Some 1,599,364 SA returns have been filed online in the period 1 April 2004 to 31 January 2005.
There was a problem over the weekend of 29 and 30 January 2005 which caused a delay in sending back responses to tell customers whether their return had been accepted or not. The Inland Revenue recognises that if a return was not accepted because of errors in it, customers may not have had time to correct and resubmit it before the 31 January deadline. The Inland Revenue holds a complete record of all returns sent online over the weekend and if any of those not accepted are re-submitted within 14 days of the date of the "not accepted" message they will waive any late filing penalty.