Self Assessment Notes for Software Developers

June 2008

Contents

IT on the horizon

Pre – registration

We will be pre-registering unrepresented SA customers who don’t have an agent and, by 31 October, have neither sent us a paper return nor registered themselves to go online, by sending them an Activation PIN in the post.

The changes in this year’s SA filing deadlines mean that those unrepresented customers who have not filed a paper return by 31 October should register for online services and submit an online return by 31 January.

We will be making every effort, in this year’s SA marketing campaign, to encourage SA customers who are not confident with computers to file on paper by the 31 October deadline. But there will invariably be some who, for whatever reason, fail to do so. There will also be those customers who are computer confident but, by 31 October, have not yet registered themselves for online services.

For both groups of customers, we intend to facilitate and speed up the registration process by sending each of them, in November, a letter enclosing an individual and unique Activation PIN, together with a short guide explaining, on a step-by-step basis, exactly how the registration process works and what they should do on each screen. This should enable all these customers to register successfully, with plenty of time to spare before their online returns are due in. Once registered, they can then file online, using whichever package they prefer.

Delegated rights management

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) held a meeting with developers on 12 June (this was slightly delayed from a proposed meeting date of May) where we explored possible uses for the new Government Gateway API Portal. A technical pack is available for developers who would like to explore this further. HMRC are now looking at ways to build on this delivery and move towards the design of a delegated rights management facility; however this work is still in the early stages.
In September, as part of a Government Gateway release, please note that Users and Assistants will be re-named Administrators and Assistants.

Disaster tolerance

HMRC are committed to providing robust and reliable online services. Earlier this year we made significant improvements to our infrastructure by increasing the capacity of our services to cope with higher volumes of transactions, alongside the introduction of a number of service management tools. We intend to build upon this during the summer by implementing a disaster tolerant structure which will allow our services to remain available to customers in the event of a disaster scenario.

Specials and Exclusions Lists – HMRC statement

There are scenarios where a Self Assessment Tax return cannot be filed online. HMRC places these on what is normally referred to as the Exclusions List.

HMRC is committed to helping customers to file online and, consequently, will review the scenarios that appear on the Exclusions List, introducing ‘workarounds’ wherever possible. Once a ‘workaround’ has been introduced HMRC usually remove the scenario from the Exclusions List and place it, with details of the workaround, on the Specials List. Software Developers usually make coding changes to include these workarounds in their products.

The April 2008 release for Self Assessment was unprecedently large and complex and HMRC appreciates that coding changes, to include workarounds, cannot always be accommodated by Software Developers, not least because of the need for testing.

To recognise this HMRC will not add further scenarios to the Specials List for the 2007-08 return. And all the additions that were placed on the Specials List after 5 April 2008 will be moved to the Exclusions List. For completeness we will still show the workarounds for those customers who are prepared to apply the manual workaround, and for Software Developers who may be able to code in some further workarounds later in the year.

The Specials List for the 2007-08 return will reflect issues for which workarounds were published before 6 April 2008. Many of these will already have been included in software products.

The Exclusions List (PDF 219K) and the Specials List (PDF 463K) are primarily intended for software developers to allow them to include the workarounds into their software. However, they may also be of interest to tax agents who may be able to use a workaround manually where it has not been automated within their software package. HMRC is currently working with agent representatives to provide guidance about how to deal with cases where there are difficulties filing online.

Penalties and reasonable excuse

Returns filed on paper after 31 October will normally trigger a penalty (a maximum of £100 for individuals). HMRC will accept an appeal and remove the penalty for the late submission of a return where a reasonable excuse exists.

Where customers advise us that one or more of the reasons shown on the Exclusions List prevented them from filing their SA return online we will accept an appeal against a penalty for the late submission of a paper return on the basis that they had a reasonable excuse.

Where customers advise us that they filed a paper return late because of issues relating to a scenario on the Specials List we will consider claims for 'reasonable excuse' on a case by case basis.

Data provisioning for SA (SA pre-population for third parties)

HMRC were hoping to allow software developers to pre-populate data into their applications from April 2009. This project has been working through the requirement gathering phases and initial conclusions are that this plan is likely to be frustrated by cost considerations.

Initial feedback from agents (the main users of third party products) has been that, given the cost constraints, there are services they'd prefer to see higher up the list of priorities for online service enhancement than pre-population of third party software. The data we were hoping to pre-populate is already available via SA 'View Account', although we accept that re-keying is not such an elegant solution. As such we continue to work with our IT suppliers to look for more cost effective solutions to allow data provisioning.

Repayments by cheque

HMRC's online service for Self Assessment handles repayments by sending the refund directly to the customer's bank/building society account. HMRC prefer to deal with online repayments in this safe and efficient way. This requires taxpayers or agents to complete the relevant bank details section on the return and, if that section is not completed, a repayment will not be issued.

Where a customer prefers a repayment by cheque, either to the taxpayer or to a nominee, then the bank details section should be left blank. Once the return has been successfully submitted the taxpayer or their agent should contact their Tax Office and ask for the repayment to be made by cheque.

In cases where repayment by cheque should be made to a nominee, the above process still applies but the nominee’s name and address details must be provided.

Index to recent SA documents

Please see the 2008 Internet Service Technical Pack for Software Developers.

Events and meetings

HMRC attends a number of exhibitions where its online services are promoted. These are aimed at

  • individuals and employees
  • employers
  • businesses and corporations
  • agents and tax practitioners
  • software developers

The events are free to attend; however they tend to be popular and early booking is advisable. Follow the links below for more information.

Statistical information

Returns filed to date in current year: 358,373 to the 24 June
Increase on same point in previous year: 34,468 (10.64 per cent)
The split of current filing between HMRC and third party products: 157,266 HMRC and 201,107 third party

General interest

HMRC’s transactional online services strategy – progress update

Following a joint workshop event in March we have established a formal consultation forum and governance process for progressing our review of HMRC’s transactional services strategy. This work is guided by, and consults with, a Steering Group made up of representatives from HMRC and the software industry and has access to wider consultative forums for the software industry, employers and tax agents. The review team reports to a Senior Review Board consisting of senior HMRC stakeholders.

HMRC’s transactional services strategy work to date has concluded that certain 'entry level' customer segments need software and online support that is free at the point of use across various products to enable them to file online without facing unnecessary burdens, as set out in the March article.

The aim of the work with the software industry is to consider developing sustainable, user-friendly free products that enable these customer groups to submit data online to HMRC. While the department has customer groups it sees as a priority for free filing products, it recognises that HMRC does not have to provide those products, and that the industry may be able to provide them instead. That would give HMRC’s customers the software they need, and give the industry the opportunity to market further, added value products that customers will need as – for example – their businesses grow or their tax affairs become more complex.

In the longer term HMRC has stated that it will review its position on providing free software as the industry steps up to the challenge of providing free products for entry level customer segments. When and in which heads of duty any withdrawal of existing products will take place depends upon there being a mature sustainable range of free products in place. Work is on-going with software industry bodies to define what is meant by 'sustainable'.

Finally we are undertaking some research to look at different ways of providing equal billing on our website for third party products.

Common errors

In response to feedback from developers HMRC are now able to provide full details of the errors customers experienced when using third party SA software. These reports are published on a monthly basis and already this information is proving very useful to both developers and HMRC.
Where developers find they need more information they can contact SDST who will discuss the information and can provide a closer analysis of the information to help developers fix their software.

Contacts for specific issues

If you have any feedback, questions or issues please:
Email SDS Team
Tel 01274 534666 this line is open from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm, Monday to Friday.