HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is pressing on with its push to force taxpayers into fileing VAT online by phasing out the pre-paid envelopes which are normally supplied.

‘This is unfortunate timing as HMRC’s recent data loss scandal is still fresh in everyone’s mind. You would think that they would be a bit more sensitive to taxpayers’ concerns before they tried to railroad them all into filing online,’ Malcolm Winston, UHY Hacker Young partner, told The Birmingham Post.

‘There are still quite a few personal and business taxpayers who either don’t have access to broadband or who are still very nervous about lodging sensitive financial information online.’

According to HMRC the phasing out of pre-paid envelopes followed the example of other private and public sector organisations but Winston said this was a strange comparison. ‘The customer gets to choose which company they deal with and have the right not to draw on public services,’ he said.

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