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HMRC server issues thwart RTI submissions

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1st Dec 2015
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HMRC’s PAYE Online servers started playing up yesterday, causing delays and frustration for companies and agents attempting to file monthly full payment submissions.

In one of three Any Answers posts on Tuesday that brought forward a flurry of similar responses, Heather Brown asked, “Is anyone else finding it impossible to file any FPSs today despite the ‘full service available’ message on HMRC website?”

Time for Change added elsewhere, “I presume other members are experiencing difficulty, with this well-oiled machine.”

The problems appeared to occur at the polling stage of the RTI submission, with the filers’ systems going into a continuous loop in the absence of any response from the government gateway. Along with the AccountingWEB posts, payroll software developers report getting multiple calls about the problem on their support lines.

“We received an email at 15:13 yesterday from HMRC saying there’s a problem with online filing,” said Alex Rowson, technical director of Qtac. Of the 50 helpline calls Qtac received yesterday, almost half were related to the HMRC technical difficulties.

Moneysoft, a payroll service provider, did not receive this same courtesy e-mail, however, frustrating attempts to advise its customers. Moneysoft told AccountingWEB, yesterday wasn’t one of the busiest days for RTI submissions, “but there were enough for there to be a lot of outstanding submissions today”.

When contacted late yesterday, an HMRC spokesman told AccountingWEB he was not aware of the issue. However HMRC’s PAYE service availability page was later amended to say, “HMRC is aware that you may be experiencing a delay in receiving your submission response. We are working with our IT partners to provide an urgent fix for the problem and apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Both Moneysoft and Qtac received confirmation at 9am on Wednesday from HMRC that its payroll filing mechanism was fully functional once again.

A statement from IRIS explained: “While we endeavour to support all customer queries, in this situation there is little else we can advise. Ultimately this is a HMRC issue that IRIS has no direct control over.”

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Replies (8)

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PJ
By paulgrca.net
01st Dec 2015 12:55

Customer Service

Enough time to email software providers so why did it take so long to put a message on the website!

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Time for change
By Time for change
01st Dec 2015 15:57

If "boy" George is as committed to the

HMRC machine, as he infers, then internet based filing systems need to be flawless, not some of the time but, at all times.

The accountancy and taxation profession provides (extremely) cost effective; preparation and submission of a variety of HMRC requirements (personal and corporate self-assessment, RTI reports) and the least we should be able to expect is that the "engine room" is fit for purpose.

Over the last few months, we've seen, with worrying regularity, periods of downtime and, those who work within the HMRC movement are either, totally ignorant, or simply naive, about what the situation is, when reasonable enquiries are made.

Until and unless HMRC accepts its shortcomings and stops referring to taxpayers as customers, the situation will only become much worse.

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John Stokdyk, AccountingWEB head of insight
By John Stokdyk
01st Dec 2015 16:00

Get your act together, HMRC (again)

The lack of swift, clear explanations from HMRC is a concern in this episode as it suggests the tax department is not aware of, nor responding to issues that affect “customer service”.

I’ve also got a growing suspicion that with all its initiatives to go digital and stimulate innovation in the tax software market, HMRC may also be relying more and more heavily on the commercial software providers to field customer service calls. But even if this is the case, some of them are being updated, but others are not.

One could speculate that until the transfer of the service availability page to Gov.uk, it had been a pretty reliable source of system-related announcements and advice - and that the transparency over these issues extended to the press office, which is where AccountingWEB turns when we hear of disruptions.

Something has fallen down with the department’s reporting mechanisms, and until it can offer satisfactory diagnoses and assurances, we have got to operate under the assumption that the potential flaws within the RTI system have not been eradicated.

Given all the other publicity that has surrounded the payroll and universal credit data system during the past few years, you would think HMRC would pay more attention to getting these things right and communicating service availability information quickly and efficiently.

Thanks (3)
Head of woman
By Rebecca Cave
02nd Dec 2015 10:49

Not potential flaws in RTI system - actual flaws

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. There needs to be an independant body setting standards for tax software including HMRC's end of the tax processing system. HMRC has a conflict of interest being a tax collector and effectively a rule-setter controlling software standards. Currently "flaws" or "bugs" in the system can operate in HMRC's favour with no oversight.

Thanks (2)
Replying to Georgia123:
Time for change
By Time for change
02nd Dec 2015 14:40

Couldn't agree more.........

taxwriter wrote:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. There needs to be an independant body setting standards for tax software including HMRC's end of the tax processing system. HMRC has a conflict of interest being a tax collector and effectively a rule-setter controlling software standards. Currently "flaws" or "bugs" in the system can operate in HMRC's favour with no oversight.

From what I can see HMRC has a variety of strategic visions, none of which, in my view, can successfully be achieved, until and unless, there are independent assessment and inspections, along the lines of Ofsted (as in Education).

Too much to ask for?

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avatar
By richardterhorst
02nd Dec 2015 13:55

Not only PAYE

We had the same issue with the SA100 submissions. Just went into a loop.

After 15 mins abandoned attempting to submit. No emails saying problems. No notifications on their websites. Nothing. How about an automatic penalty?

Then got some few hours later a confirmation email saying received but my software still had it as not submitted. As I do not trust HMRC software finalised submission in my software. Hope that HMRC does not get confused (again)

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By coolmanwithbeard
02nd Dec 2015 18:01

Some perspective..

Although it should work properly - the issue on Monday was about getting responses and I got a message when I tried to submit saying so (probably put there by my software supplier I know)

So delayed responses. As I have not had a submission rejected in available memory and it was the end of the month I simply submitted them all. Once I had seen the email responses from the gateway I just went through and collected the responses.

 

I guess the point is I was able to submit on time

 

M

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avatar
By the_fishmonger
03rd Dec 2015 13:29

Institutes/Associations and other bodies

Surely, this type of issue is exactly what these bodies we pay towards are meant to take up on behalf of everyone? With 'n' hundred thousand members between them, they *should* carry enough clout with the relevant people to cause pause for thought on expanding the digital scene  at the very least.

By which I would expect them to stand together with a joint working party, not as individual bodies since this is fundamental to theway things are going to be.

No wonder there are more and more disillusioned practitioners dropping these bodies if they can't organise more than a cheese and wine evening to entertain one another.

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