Problems fiiling online - who's liable?

far

I completed my tax return online on the 16th of November in plenty of time for the deadline or so I thought. The calculation done online shows I am due a small refund and have no liability to pay for the 2007/8 tax year. Everytime I click Next on the final step to file the return, I get the message "Your return has not yet been accepted". This persisted for several hours and I called up the electronic services helpdesk who gave me a case reference number. This has continyed to happen ever since and the last information from them I have is that I will have to wait until they reset something. There is no timescale for this and I've been told it could well not happen until after the 31st of January :mad: My question is simply this then - who is responsible for this? I understand there will be no penalty to pay since I have no liability but surely this is getting silly now? Has anyone else had such a problem?

dori2o

Whether the online facility is working or not, it is the responsibility of the individual to ensure a self assessment tax return is submitted and received by the tax office.

mrkbrrws

HMRC is clearly responsible for it because it is their system.

Even if they issue a late filing penalty it will be reduced to nil once the Return is processed with no tax liability.

ALIBOBSY

Think I saw a note about this on the revenue site where it says to do a print off of the final page where it gives the error message, it can then be attached to a paper version if required and no penalty will be applied. Seems they are well aware of the issues, just make sure you get some proof of the problems and they won't hold you at fault.

ali x

ali x

far

dori2o wrote: »

Whether the online facility is working or not, it is the responsibility of the individual to ensure a self assessment tax return is submitted and received by the tax office.

How does one go about this then? If their systems won't accept my tax return, even by the 31st, and I file by paper it's an immediate penalty for a late filing by paper anyway; and if I cannot file online until after the 31st it's a penalty anyway :rolleyes:

Ali - any idea where you saw this notice? I've been trawling through the HMRC site but can't find anything there

Mikeyorks

All I've seen on the HMRC site is this :-

Submission failures – updated 22 December 2008

We are aware that some customers are receiving error messages when filing their online tax return. If you experience this problem please contact the Online Services Helpdesk for assistance.

.... which simply leaves you where you were? The only aspect I can find suggesting a (late) paper return, citing an error message, is acceptable is specifically under problems with agent software :-

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/carter/sa-agentupdate1.htm#2



(see 'What about intermittent faults ..')

Elaine_Wilson

Blast. I've just lost a lengthy reply but the gist of it is that you will not have to pay any penalty.

I haven't seen anything on the HMRC website to cover your position but there are parallels. The best comfort can be gained from a quote in the link given by Mikeyorks.

"We will also consider sympathetically claims for reasonable excuse where you advise us that a paper return has been filed late because of another issue relating to use of the online service."

Whether you wait to see if the electronic submission will succeed or send in a paper version with a covering letter detailing the problem you will have to accept that a penalty notice may well be issued. This will be overturned on appeal, though.

Although not relevant in your case (as you do not have a tax liability and any penalty would be reduced to nil in any case) failure of the computer system will give a reasonable excuse for a late return. Lord Carter, in his report suggesting the changes to the filing deadlines, stated that electronic filing should only be made mandatory if the Revenue had a robust system to accept the returns.

The current system has many failings. It cannot cope with many common situations. HMRC have published a number of "workarounds" where the returns submitted are technically incorrect but will not give rise to a penalty. The precedent is there that where the system is at fault the taxpayer will not be penalised.

ceeforcat

I had one of these in November and contacted the helpline. Apparently system could not accept Foreign Pensions correctly!!!!

Eventually they phoned me back and asked me to resubmit - worked fine. Revenue would find difficulty in charging any penalty in this instance.

dlk

Don't worry about it. I had the exact same issue for my April 07 tax return. It never did get resolved so I ended up having to get a paper copy and send that in late.

You say you don't owe any tax as was my position. The late payment fee will never be any higher than the tax you owe e.g if you owe £20 tax the late payment fee is reduced to £20...if you owe them nothing or they owe you they don't charge a late fee.

I'd recommend getting a paper form and just send it when you can (I ended up not sending mine in until about 6 months late and this wasn't a problem due to the above rules)