HMRCs "Successful Receipt of Online Submission for Reference"

Yes

I'm getting them as usual.  They sometimes take a few minutes rather than the usual seconds to come through but they're still coming.

We're getting ours ok

It is maybe worth checking that your email address hasn't got changed in your software.

trouble here...

Mine has been trying to get a response for about an hour now....

Can be late

I've had a couple take a day or two to come through, and occasionally find that they don't come through at all.  Inevitable really.

I simply check the HMRC online record to see if the return is logged as having been received.  You could take a screenprint if of a nervous disposition!

Only once recently

I had a delay during the strike but it appeared the next day.

always take a screenprint via screen capture

Have always made it a point to take a screen capture via screen print. Then save as a tiff or jpg file.  Can always use that as a proof that you have filed and HMRC have accepted - in addition to the software log showing the same.

If you mean the emails

I always understood that they were proof of nothing. It is the Gateway receipt that your software receives that gives the conclusive proof.

Proof of nothing?

What do you mean? Are you saying that HMRC send out random emails purporting to be receipt of tax returns when in fact they are some kind of joke?

If a client sent me something and I emailed them back that I had received them I would think that would be good proof.

No

but the Gateway receipt contains other code that can be used to prove and trace a return - at least it does on my system.

The email is just an automated response, like an out of office email from you, that the system sends when the submission hits the gateway. At least that was always my understanding. So I have not worried about receiving an email, or not, so long as the formal receipt is held by the software, which I print to PDF and store separately on the client record

Software response

I agree completely with ACDWebb.

The confirmation produced by your software from the HMRC response that the return was accepted quotes the IR Mark (or, at least, it does in IRIS), which is the essential reference.  The e-mail is superfluous.

Proof of nothing?

I realise the software confirmation gives the IRmark which of course is better than the email which does not.

I still don't agree that the email is "proof of nothing".

If you had lost the software confirmation then the email proves that a tax return has been received and HMRC would have to produce a tax return.

The email is only superfluous if you have the software confirmation (which you should have).