§ The Paymaster General (Dawn Primarolo)I can today publish figures for the number of Self-Assessment returns filed by the 2003 January deadline.
The Inland Revenue has met its SDA target of 90.5 per cent. of SA taxpayers filing their 2001/02 tax return on time. The Department achieved 90.54 per cent.:
8.371,251—returns were received, out of 9,246,131 issuedThe number of returns filed electronically rose significantly. At 31st January 2003, around 700,000 had been received electronically. 325,000 of these were received from Internet filers, compared with around 75,000 in the same period last year. The remainder were received from agents using the Electronic Lodgement Service (ELS).Activities that helped the department to meet the target were:
an extensive media campaign, involving TV, radio and newspaper adsfront-line staff reminding people about the deadline in day-to-day contact with customersphoning a quarter of a million (mainly new-to-SA) customers to remind them about the deadline, and offer help.a News Release in the run-up to the deadline, emphasising the message about late filing penalties, and interest and tax surcharges for late paymentpublicity on the Internet, promoting the Department's electronic servicessending two mailshots to 1.4 million self employed customers on the back of an existing national insurance letter raising awareness amongst agents with publicity in the Department's Tax Bulletin publicationusing the Department's network of Local Radio Broadcasters to publicise the deadline message