WRITTEN ON May 25th, 2007 BY Richard S AND STORED IN Uncategorized

Each year at this time, government demands its “fix” of my company’s data: Companies House accounts and annual return; PAYE & National Insurance return; Corporation Tax return.

The government tells us to file these online – I try to oblige, if only to test the quality of these government services. I’ve been using them, and the online personal Tax Self-assessment service since their inception.

This year, failures in the HMRC online Corporation Tax service have left me angry…

[b]Problems with the HMRC online Corporation Tax service :[/b]

1. This service has not been updated to reflect Budget changes:

A note on the HMRC web-site says that the service will not be updated with Budget changes until after Parliament has passed the 2007 Finance Act: Unfortunately, the increases in the corporation tax rates for SMEs applies from the date of the Budget: In the meantime, companies are advised to do their own calculations and post their returns on paper forms, or wait until after the Finance Act has been passed!

The deadline for my company’s tax return falls before the Finance Act.

2. The attachment uploading facility is broken:

Corporation Tax returns have to be supported with a copy of the company accounts: In my company’s case, this means a Profit & Loss Account and a Balance Sheet. These have to be submitted in PDF format.

After wading through the tax form, with its mass of jargon and irrelevant boxes, eventually achieving confirmation that no errors had been found; I tried to upload the form and the relevant PDF files:

Some time later, the service rejected my submission, claiming that my attachments contained a virus.

Although doubtful, I checked the files but found no problems.

On phoning the help line, when I eventually reached a human, I was told:

– they knew about this problem,
– there was no “work-around,”
– they had not posted a warning because “some” people were not affected,
– I could have a reference number to “quote in my appeal against penalty charges,”
– I was advised to post my company’s return on paper.

Overall, I score the HMRC about one out of ten.

[b]The Wibbis:[/b]

1.If the government requires us to use these online services, they must provide convenient, effective, reliable services.

2.These online services are still too full of jargon: They must be made easier for non specialists to use.

3.Budget changes should not apply until authorised by Parliament: It’s completely unacceptable that this HMRC’s official online service does not reflect the current tax rates.

4.When a government service is faulty, there should be a clear message to warn potential users.

5.HMRC needs to sort out its Domain names: Their main URLs use hmrc.gov.uk but the online services still use inlandrevenue.gov.uk This diversion causes security problems with Firefox/noscript.