Minutes of Stamp Duty Land Developer Forum

10 April 2008

Venue: 100 Parliament Street, London, 2/65

Attendees:

Tim Minshull (TM) HMRC SDS Team
Lorna Clark (LC) HMRC SDS Team
Adrian Dixon (AD) Landscape Software
Roger Hancock (RH) LSSA
Simon Sabel (SS) Landscape Software
Paul Crouch (PCr) Laserform
Pete Lewis (PL) Laserform
Andrew Graham (AG) HM Land Registry
Archie Courage (AC) SDLT.co.uk
Susie Campbell (SC) Enact
Simon Pearson (SP) Easy Convey
Steven Marshall (SMa) Ochresoft
Rachel Varndell (RV) HMRC Stamp Taxes
Mark de Brunner (MB) HMRC Stamp Taxes
Paul Coulthard (PC) HMRC Stamp Taxes
Mark Bevington (MBe) HMRC Stamp Taxes
Sally Mills (SM) HMRC Stamp Taxes
Alison Thomas (AT) HMRC Stamp Taxes
Tim Downes (TD) HMRC SDS Team
Liz Jenkins (LJ) HMRC SDS Team


1. Introductions

SM introduced MB and AT to the group.

2. Action Points from previous developer forum

  • TM advised that the IRmark issue has been reported, but as it is just a missing full stop in the IRmark message, it has been classed as a low priority problem and is unlikely to be fixed shortly. This won’t affect third party software developers or their software.
  • TM spoke about Gateway usage activity and handed round a graph charting the peak times for SDLT submissions during each working day in a sample month. This usage pattern is consistent throughout the year apart from the two busiest filing days (31 January for SA and 19 May for PAYE) when the service is exceptionally busy. Developers also confirmed that they noticed an increase of submissions on Fridays. SDLT submissions account for 15 per cent of total usage of the Government Gateway.
  • SM advised Q26 multiple lease guidance has been added to SDLT6 guidance notes.
  • AG is to investigate whether title numbers can be linked from third party applications to HMLR. AP – AG
  • TM advised that the proposed new SDS Team web pages are currently unable to offer RSS feeds. However, Stamp Taxes have their own project which will provide RSS feeds for Stamp Taxes website. TM and PC to discuss whether SDS Team could utilise this. AP - TM and PC
  • AD questioned how long RSS feeds will remain on Stamp Taxes website. AP – PC

3. Working Together membership update

Please see separate document published with the minutes.

4. CD-ROM/barcode withdrawal

SM confirmed total SDLT barcode submissions are now 13per cent and this is a further reduction of 25 per cent. The total online submissions are now at 56 per cent and are on course to reach 75 per cent of submissions received online by 2009, therefore reducing the need of mandation. Remaining 2D barcode developers will be invited to the DVD launch (see note 3 for further information). Third party developers all confirmed that the withdrawal of 2D barcode submission route will be welcomed. Complex transactions will still need to be submitted on paper, but there are fewer transactions that can’t be filed via the Internet.

AC raised the question of disaster recovery plan. Could users complete their return using his application, then print and post the return. AT confirmed that this was unacceptable and the disaster recovery plan is to use green and white paper forms.

5. Other Government Department registration

The solution to SDLT registration has been successfully rolled out to local authorities. 218 SA UTRs have been issued and 81 have registered and activated their accounts. Stamp Taxes will follow up any local authorities who haven’t registered and are investigating the possibility of other groups registering for SDLT Online eg church groups. The third party developers confirmed they haven’t encountered any issues with registration recently.

6. DVD – promoting SDLT

  • 200 to 300 invitees are expected to attend the launch event on 5 June 2008 at Euston Tower. Due to the restriction on space and security restrictions, attendees will be given an hourly slot. The DVD was available to watch in it’s uncut format after the forum.
  • AD asked if Stamps had considered publishing it on YouTube. SM advised that they had as well as university websites etc.

7. Customer feedback

  • At the end of February 2008, 5,784 users were registered for Stamp Tax Online with 13,000 assistants and over one million returns had been filed online.
  • 153 customer comments were received in Quarter 3 (September 2007 to December 2007). 38 requested longer field lengths, 38 stated that the HMRC application took a long time to use, 15 requested templates for vendors/purchasers and 3 wanted to amend already submitted forms. AC said that his customers would rather write than telephone in respect of amendments and offered to create a template to make amendments to submitted forms. AT and SM to investigate the template and any legalities. AP – AC, AT and SM

8. SDS Team/Government Gateway update

  • An online forum is still being investigated by the SDS Team. Funding and security constraints are currently hampering the progression.
  • TM advised the release of ‘Intelligent Polling’ is due for release next week and a brief discussion took place regarding intelligent polling.
  • TD is investigating the possibility of the Service Availability page being updated in real time.
  • The public Application Programme Interface (API) is to be opened up to third party software developers. A workshop is to be arranged for third party developers for all services in May 2008 (date tbc).
  • TM is liasing with HMRC payments ‘Business Owners’ to investigate the possibility of third party software integration with HMRC systems in order to pay electronically.
  • TD briefly explained the Account Management role to the developers and TM is the Account Manager for all SDLT developers and the SDS Team is the first point of contact for Software Developers. SDST are also happy to visit developers in order to resolve any problems they may have.
  • AD asked whether it would be possible to receive detailed error stats to show the reasons why submissions had failed. Unfortunately, there is no money available for enhancements at the moment, but this has been prioritised for delivery should the situation change.

9. ARTL update

Please see separate document published with the minutes.

10. HM Land Registry update

Please see separate document published with the minutes.

11. Pre-insertion of UTRNs in to SDLT returns

Stamp Taxes are investigating offering a separate range of UTRNs that can be generated by third party software developers eg 5 range is used for electronic filing, 3 range is used for green and white forms. The likely pre-fix for third party generated UTRNs is 2. SP questioned its necessity and whether there will still be the option not to insert a UTRN. Duplicate SDLT returns causes workload and audit issues for Stamp Taxes and UTRN pre-insertion is a way of reducing this risk. However, there will still be the option not to pre-insert a UTRN and have one returned by HMRC systems. All developers present were agreeable with the recommendations of having 500k UTRNs allocated to them. SM and MB to discuss this proposal and the point will be added to the agenda for the next meeting.

12. Accreditation

Please see separate document published with the minutes. Accreditation is currently only available for PAYE ‘End of Year’ developers. However, HMRC are currently reviewing their policy on this and are considering extending the accreditation scheme to other types of tax.

13. Security

SDS Team confirmed that they would not request copies of live XML files, but developers can send live files at their discretion, ideally anonymising any sensitive client information. Developers may also encrypt the information using winzip 9.1 prior to sending to SDST, but this is also at their own risk. MB explained that prior to joining Stamp Taxes he assisted on security issues in a short term capacity and suggested having a protocol on sending live data. AP – TM

14. Phonecalls from HMRC

AC has two clients who have been approached by HMRC Stamp Taxes Helpdesk regarding online filing. The helpdesk advisor tried to encourage his client into using the HMRC free software. AT and SM made clear that this behaviour is not endorsed or encouraged by HMRC and that helpdesk staff and all contact centre mangers have been contacted to reiterate this message.

15. AOB

  • AC questioned the requirement to file an SDLT1 after a rent review. If rent increases abnormally, another SDLT1 form will be required. Guidance letters are to be updated but no time scale for the updated was given.
  • Developers requested access to the code behind the NPV calculator but the code is not owned or updated by HMRC, so this won’t be possible.
  • AC asked for the NPV link from the SDLT6 guidance notes to be added to the minutes:

NPV calculator

  • PT requested an extension on the agent email address field. This is an optional field within the schema and is not currently utilised by Stamp Taxes, so no money will be available for this enhancement.
  • AC mentioned that some of his clients have had their SDLT5 continuation sheets rejected and copy SDLT 3 and 4s requested instead. Land Registry confirmed that additional transactions are acceptable on the SDLT5 continuation sheet. Any further SDLT5 rejections should be passed to SDS Team to forward to HMLR.


Meeting closed at 15.50.

Next developer forum arranged for mid July.
Post meeting note – this will take place at 13.30 on 22 July 2008 at 100 Parliament Street, London.