As a sole practitioner with a relatively small client portfolio it is easy to feel isolated and in something of a bubble. There will be many readers in the same position as me and perhaps it will be useful to them to know they are not alone.
Despite the relatively small number of self-assessment (SA) returns I file annually it appears that a worrying trend is emerging. I haven’t drilled down to do a proper statistical analysis but something in my bones tells me there must be fundamental and serious errors with HMRC’s SA computer systems – and something that HMRC does not appear to acknowledge when I have pressed them politely on the point.
Two concrete and real-world examples will, I hope, illustrate the point.
- Client one: HMRC SA online shows 2023-24 SAR filed on 29 January 2025 yet HMRC have imposed a £100 late filing penalty.
- Client two: HMRC SA online shows 2023-24 SAR filed on 27 February 2025 yet in addition to the correct £100 late filing penalty HMRC has imposed daily penalties.
Both client one’s late filing penalty and client two’s daily penalties are outside the statutory penalty provisions and are clearly incorrect. Surely a competent computer programmer could ensure that penalties were only charged if the time limit conditions were met?
Perhaps it’s just bad luck and coincidence that these errors have occurred in regard to my clients, or is it a wider problem? As a tax agent I am alive to these errors and can resolve them – albeit at a cost to me as I cannot in good conscience bill my clients for the extra work these errors have created for me.
But if this is a more widespread problem then what about taxpayers, sorry ‘customers’, who assume that HMRC must be right – elderly or unrepresented and unsophisticated taxpayers? I was formerly an FT inspector in the ‘old’ Inland Revenue and I felt proud of both my service and the department in which I served. But now I feel a mixture of sadness, bewilderment and anger about the current state of HMRC.
I’m just thankful that I will be hanging up my hat soon and won’t have to deal with the car crash that I fear making tax digital will become.
An old campaigner.
