Self assessment could be improved on the cheap
The number of taxpayers who submit their returns online could be increased if the government made some simple, cost-free changes to the self-assessment system, according to the ACCA.
Since the start of internet filing only 0.1% of taxpayers able to submit self-assessment returns have actually used the facility.
Links: Self assessment security failureMore worryingly only 5% of ACCA members practising in tax had opted to file their returns via the internet rather than using the paper forms.
According to Chas Roy-Chowdhury, head of tax at the ACCA, 40% of American tax-payers currently file their returns over the internet and there is a drive to double this percentage.
This is despite the fact that they pay a fee to do so, unlike in the UK where the software is provided free of charge.
One of his proposals is to give online tax filers a deadline of 31 October, one month after paper-based returns have to be submitted, if the Inland Revenue is to calculate the tax liability.
Currently the time limit for the Revenue to investigate self-assessment returns is 12 months after the final filing deadline of 31 January. Reducing this to nine months would in his opinion encourage more taxpayers to file online.