Occasionally when logging into SA online after entering user ID and selecting the SA service a HMRC page appears saying 'Security check - Please wait, for security reasons HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are checking that you are authorised to access this page. If you encounter a problem contact HMRC Online Services Helpdesk.' the page is headed 'HMRC: Exceeded 4 hour limit' at the top. Sometimes the page will freeze for a few seconds, sometimes a few minutes. This happens on about 1 login in 10. I happens when I used IE or Chrome. It happens when I log in at home or work. This has been happening for some years. I mentioned it in a WT meeting recently and no one else was experiencing this problem. So I reported it to HMRC Online Services Helpdesk. They have never heard of it before. Has anyone else experienced this?
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i try not to log onto hmrc www .. ever
.. I prefer my tax software for filing sa returns , even though it costs me an arm and a leg ....its quick because it just sends a very tiny stream of data , rather than clumsy www bloated script.. ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
are you checking paye codes and payments for free ?
I dont know if you charge extra for that , I would .. it just takes extra time , and its the clients responsibility unless they specifically ask for that work
I simply draft letters to clients advising of tax payments due , stating I assume they have paid the provisional amounts previously advised
If you do too much for them , and its outside your engagement letter they might sue you for all sorts of thing you haven't checked , eg ni ,various vat issues etc ,etc
where ever possible I use HMRC for personal tax filings
its all there so whatever happensto data it aint our fault and its particularly good at seeing allocation of paymenst etc and other bits all linked to the return . i think i suffered the problem once
Agree
its all there so whatever happens to data it aint our fault and its particularly good at seeing allocation of payments etc and other bits all linked to the return
There are a lot of plus points to the free software.
Mind you, I'm glad I let other people sort out the bugs before I switched away from paper returns.
Don't get too near the cutting edge of technology - that's my motto.
Yes
Happened to me earlier this week.
It then came up with something like 'unable to access this page' and I had to go back to HMRC services.
I thought maybe because someone else in the office had been logged in for a while?
I could still carry on as I wished so I never thought much of it.
Wish list for future updates to HMRC software
I also usually file via commercial software, but we all need to view the HMRC web site at times to see what information they hold. My dream is that future updates to HMRC software will be two-way. As well as commercial software sending data to HMRC, I'd like HMRC to send data back to the commercial software. That way, my own software (designed by commercial organisations who build tools that we actually want, rather than HMRC who build tools that THEY want!) will produce useful reports that tell me at glance what I need to know.
My tax and practice management software can then check that the data held by HMRC matches what my tax software has filed and can give me exceptions reports, based upon key criteria; eg unpaid tax, tax code changes and much else besides. PAYE reconciliations will become a breeze. Seeing which clients have not paid their income tax on time will take moments.
Then I wake up....after all, since when have HMRC really tried to help us (the accountancy profession) help them (HMRC)?
Move to New Zealand...We think that our IRD system is outdated, but we do have two way communication and it does exactly what you have wished for. It matches actual payments with expected payments, updates assessments, adds any penalties etc. Our software provider talks to IRD on a regular basis so that all changes are updated in our system as well.
We also have secure email through our login, and just recently IRD have started accepting the use of normal email as well.
Also no way to email HMRC
In this day and age it seems crazy that you can't email HMRC!
My usual routine to answer a query is:
1. Look on the website, after all it's 2014 and I appreciate a website is very cost effective. If I can't get the answer then
2. phone them and wait (in my experience) about15 minutes to get through, during which time they tell me repeatedly that I can get answers from the website. Once I get through, if they can't answer the query, they tell me put it in writing. I ask if I can email them but they say no as email isn't secure. (Is it less secure than Royal Mail?)
Surely a secure message system could be put on the website without having to massively invent new software?
How come ...
... we let our Masters of the Accounting Universe conspire with the dark forces of HMRC to lumber us with such a dysfunctional sorry scheme of things?
Is there not a way whereby we can "shatter it to bits and remould it nearer to the heart;s desire"?
Probably not.
Ron, the unchartered accountant
Stuff up with which we should not have to put
A wiser man than me got sentenced to "twenty years of boredom for trying to change the system from within".
But what is worse is that nobody responding here seems interested in changing the system but only in obsequiously finding work-arounds to deal with the dysfunctional status quo.
Ron, the unchartered accountant