First email tax return arrives on time
Anxious technical directors of the Inland Revenue’s self-assessment project breathed a huge sigh of relief last week as the first tax return electronically filed arrived.
The file, submitted through the Revenue’s electronic lodgement service, was sent by Taunton chartered accountants AC Mole & Sons.
ELS is designed to ease the burden for accountants and the Revenue, but not all tax agents are convinced of its merits. The Revenue expects to receive 500,000 electronic returns in Year One of the new regime.
Sarah Deeks, a partner with London firm Murphy Deeks Nolan, said: ‘We have to keep a paper copy of the return at the Revenue’s request, so it is just as easy to put the return in an envelope as send it down the line.
‘We also have many clients, even the technologically adept ones, who do not like the idea of sending sensitive information electronically from a security point of view.’
But AC Mole partner Paul Aplin, who used Transaction Technology’s Iris software, argued: ‘We are convinced it has major advantages, not least in terms of paper savings. Most of our clients have now been asked whether they wish to have their returns filed electronically and to date only one has expressed reservations.’
Price Waterhouse’s head of direct tax, John Whiting, added: ‘We are looking at how we can best use ELS. It will be most efficient for simple returns and should be of most benefit to small practitioners.
‘There is plenty of room electronically for small disclosures, but if there is substantial disclosure then ELS is not the right system.’
