The current approach to the online filing of tax and accounts information with HMRC and Companies House seems certain to result in millions of pounds being wasted. Not because the process will not work or is being rushed, but because it's not happening quickly enough.

Before we get embroiled in the 'loss of two data CDs renders all future government IT initiatives dead in the water' argument, the information to be filed is information that has to be provided to the government anyway. It's surely in our interests to ensure it is provided as cheaply and efficiently as possible.

One of the many things the ICAEW IT Faculty does for us all (writing as a completely independent ex-chairman) is to organise an annual forum that brings together HMRC, Companies House, XBRL UK, key software suppliers and developers, and anyone else interested in discussing the progress towards the government's e-filing plans as originally set out in the Carter Report.

This year's forum took place on 17 December at Chartered Accountants Hall. It was a lively and robust affair with many a frank, but friendly, exchange of views. But there was one thing that pretty much everyone agreed on: the sooner the software houses implement XBRL-based online filing in their packages, the better for everyone. The worry is that for most suppliers only the mandatory deadline will provoke them into action, leaving insufficient time to ensure a smooth and error-free transition.

There are many potential advantages of e-filing - for example speed, more efficient processes and less paper. Did you know that Companies House receives an amount of paper each year equivalent in weight to a fully loaded B-52 bomber?

Every bit of information filed electronically as opposed to being delivered in hard copy and manually transcribed, meanss a cash saving for the government - otherwise why adopt e-filing at all? If this is indeed the case then, between now and 2011 when e-filing becomes mandatory, there is a very large amount of money that might - but probably won't - be saved.

What difference would it make for the software houses to implement online filing in their software now rather than in a few years' time? With the current level of public disinterest in XBRL, software houses see it as unlikely that this facility is likely to earn them any extra revenue. As Richard Pierce [1] argues elsewhere, why would they invest precious development resources on XBRL rather than some other enhancement or addition that could start generating revenue immediately?

If the software houses don’t do it themselves, might someone else get there first, perhaps Microsoft or even HMRC themselves? Or maybe even Microsoft and HMRC working together - the nightmare scenario for the software houses. There are other worries: no software developer wants to be last, or wants to leave it so late that their product runs the risk of not being properly finished in time for the deadline. However, none of these arguments seems to have proved particularly persuasive so far.

So we have millions of pounds to be saved, waiting only for the software houses to bring their development plans forwards by a year or two. How much in incentives would it cost the government to persuade the developers directly to bring their plans forward by a year or two, or to incentivise the end-users to pressure the suppliers? Almost certainly a fraction of what would be saved.

Will it happen? Almost certainly not. What's particularly frustrating is that the reason it won't happen is a very poor one. Since the online PAYE filing bonus - when 60% of companies responded, costing the government more than £200 million - the term "incentive" is about as popular as "external CD writer", even though this is a completely different situation and one where incentives could well work to nearly everyone's advantage.

Perhaps it's time for us all to ask the government to bring the e-filing deadline forward rather than delaying it, as they recently did.