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TAX NEWS: Accountants say 'no' to SA deadline changes. By Dan Martin

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5th Jun 2006
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Accountants are overwhelmingly against proposals to bring forward self-assessment deadlines, according to a joint survey by eight professional bodies.

The poll by groups including the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) found 89% of respondents were opposed to moving the deadline from 31 January to 30 September for paper filing and 30 November for online filing.

More than nine in ten accountants said the number of provisional returns would increase as a result of Lord Carter's proposals, while 75% believed their total costs would rise.

The report, which has been forwarded to HM Revenue & Customs and the Treasury, complained that in many cases it will be impossible to collect all necessary third party data in time to meet the new deadlines and agents will be plagued by staffing and paperwork problems during the tax return season.

"This proposal to increase the compliance burden inherent in our tax system was conceived without proper thought or research and adopted without consultation."

John Cullinane, CIOT

The organisations added that it is inappropriate to justify the change by making a comparison with the filing deadlines for other OECD countries given the differences between the systems and filing extensions.

John Cullinane, CIOT president, said: "This proposal to increase the compliance burden inherent in our tax system was conceived without proper thought or research and adopted without consultation. With evidence of its ill-effects mounting, it is time it was dropped."

Paul Aplin, deputy chairman of the ICAEW tax faculty, added: "The bodies' conclusion is that this proposal is not in the public interest, as it will increase costs for both taxpayers and HMRC.

"The bodies will now meet again with HMRC and HM Treasury officials to discuss the findings and to press the case for this proposal to be dropped."

Last week, a cross-party group of MPs put forward an early day motion also opposing the proposals.

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By abelljms
07th Jun 2006 17:29

deadlines change
There will be advantages from the change – tax payers will get PAYE notices corrected within current tax year, maybe accountants will no longer have their Christmases ruined by worrying about tax returns.
It is plain silly to say there will be no work to do in the other 8 months of the year, it just won’t work that way!

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By Neville Ford
07th Jun 2006 12:20

File protective returns, and then lots of paper.
As I understand it there is no proposal to move the payment date. So for those clients where you cannot reasonably get full figures by the new deadline submit an estimated return and use the 12 window to amend it (probably 31/03 and 05/04 year ends or complex cases).

The amendment will have to be paperbased, and I understand software produced faxsimile copies are not to be allowed, so request a supply of paper returns from HMRC, write them in your best hand writing (mine is not very good these days) and send them in by post. This is really going to help the Government's drive to e-business!

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By Arm266
07th Jun 2006 13:50

Self-Assessment deadlines change
The government clearly hasn't thought out the implications of these changes. Small practices, who specialise in Self-Assessment tax help, will be left with 4 months unemployed and have to rush the work into 8 months - very difficult when you are dealing with individuals who are not financially clued-up.

This can only increase fees, since salaries and overheads will have to be recovered in 8 months not 10!

Please add my name to those opposing the changes.

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