In our June 2008 edition of the Notes we said that we would be pre-registering unrepresented Self Assessment (SA) customers who don't have an agent and, by 31 October, have neither sent us a paper return or registered themselves to go online. Pre-registration involves sending these customers an Activation PIN in the post. This project remains on track and letters containing the Activation PINs will be issued from mid November.
We are now in the final phase of planning and in the run up to 31 January 2009 we will also be increasing our media coverage (television, radio, Press, roadside, underground and online adverts) to promote the filing deadline and encourage customers to file online.
As you know we were very keen to enable software developers to introduce a facility in their applications where their customers were able to automatically extract data from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) systems in order to pre-populate a taxpayers return with known information.
We would like to thank all the software developers for the help and support they have given us to understand the full impact of this requirement.
Unfortunately, it is not currently feasible for us to introduce this enhancement due to the costs involved. We consulted with tax agents, the main beneficiaries, who advised us that we should give greater priority to other Online Service enhancements.
This is a locally installed application which performs validation on the body of a test submission against the SA Schema and Specification document. Responses will be returned that indicate whether an identical live submission would pass HMRC's SA business validation rules.
The application and a full user guide are available for download from the SA technical pack. When downloading the LTS, vendors are required to supply their four digit ID so support can be provided.
The test service for PAYE was made available for download on 15 September 2008.
The test service for SA will be available for download around 6 October 2008.
The SA LTS release does not include the tax calculations, however further releases of the LTS are planned and we hope to make the calculation available via LTS from early December.
This is a live test service which performs validation on the body of a test submission against the Schema and Specification document by using the validation functionality in the Government Gateway and HMRC's SA business validation rules. Responses will be returned which show whether a similar live submission would pass or fail Government Gateway and HMRC's SA business validation rules.
The test service for both the SA and PAYE online services will be released around 6 October 2008.
The SA TPVS release does not include the tax calculation. However, from December we plan to make the tax calculation available within LTS and the final business rules and full tax calculation will be included in the update TPVS planned for February 2009.
From 6 April 2008 the Software Developers' Support Team (SDSt) has provided each developer with details of SA online rejections on a monthly basis. SDSt can also support developers by providing reports more frequently and are happy to work closely with them to help with particular problems. We hope these reports will help refine developers diagnosis (and resolution) of ongoing problems.
On 17 July we enabled customers to file their CG Summaries using our HMRC online filing product (Online Tax Return - SA (OTRSA)). A CG computation is required in every case where the CG Summary is completed and this may be a PDF attachment to the return or an entry in the 'any other information' white space. The HMRC product also allows the completion of a worksheet which customers can use to attach the computation to the return. This functionality has been targeted at unrepresented customers and agents with a very small client base.
On 2 September we enabled customers to complete and file their Foreign Page using OTRSA. The computational working sheet enables customers to calculate Foreign Tax Credit Relief. The target audiences are the same as for the CG worksheet.
We are on track to fully automate the online processing of amended SA tax returns from October 2008.
From April 2009 the SA Online service (including HMRC’s free online tax return -OTRSA) will enable returns for earlier years to be filed. This will apply to returns for 2007-08 onwards.
We have recently published an online Filing Update in collaboration with the Working Together eServices Subgroup. It acknowledges the difficulties that agents have experienced when trying to file some SA returns online and the challenges faced by everyone affected by the massive changes to SA from April 2008.
The guidance offers agents some reassurance that they should see a steady decrease in the number of returns they can't file online because HMRC understands that software developers will have completed their product updates ahead of the 31 October deadline for paper returns.
The Specials and Exclusions lists were shared with agents via an 'Agent Update' in August but we appreciate that, having been written for software developers, the lists don't make for easy reading to an untrained eye. The new guidance therefore highlights the main issues and includes a table of the Top 7 errors including a 'plain English' explanation of the error messages.
Recognising that there will be some instances where agents will have to file paper returns after the 31 October deadline, because they've been unable to file online, we have also included a 'Reasonable Excuse' form for them to attach to the paper return (ideally with a printout of the online filing error message) to help HMRC's processing staff to identify the returns and consider, sympathetically, the claims to 'reasonable excuse' so that the issue of penalty notices can be inhibited in all cases where the claim is accepted.
We have taken the opportunity to use the guidance to remind agents about the importance of using the latest version of their filing software. We know how hard developers have worked to provide workarounds for the 'special' cases and to fix other validation problems and it would be a shame if agents don't benefit from your efforts.
Please see the 2008 Internet Service Technical Pack for Software Developers.
HMRC attends a number of exhibitions where its online services are promoted. These are aimed at
The events are free to attend; however they tend to be popular and early booking is advisable. Follow the links below for more information.
2008-09 - number of returns filed through HMRC online to 30 September 08 is:
Commercial products - 1,047,161
HMRC products - 426,795
If you have any feedback, questions or issues please:
Email: SDS Team
Telephone: 01274 534666 (opening times - 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, Monday to
Friday)
