Glitch on HMRC self assessment software

Submission reference number changes without any amendments

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I have quite a number of very simple director tax returns. For these, I find it perfectly acceptable to use the HMRC free filing software.

However, for the 2019-20 returns there seems to be a bit of a glitch in the HMRC software - I wondered if anyone else had come across this? 

Once I have completed the tax return on the HMRC website, I then get the option to save/print a copy of the return. Obviously I do this, so my client can approve the return. However, the "save / print" option opens the return in the same window. Once I have saved the return, I then need to return to the tax return - the only way to do this is to click the back button on my browser. 

It's very annoying as once my client has submitted the return, I then go back into the return on the HMRC website, click on the "submit return" page and am then told that I have made a change to the return and the submission receipt number has changed. 

I'm going round in circles trying to work out how to avoid this happening. In previous years, the "save/print" option opened the return in a new window, so I could simply click on the original window once I'd printed or saved the return, and the original submission receipt number will still be valid.

I hope this makes sense! I imagine it will to anyone who also uses the HMRC free filing software for self assessment returns - would be great if anyone has any advice.

Many thanks,

Jenny

Replies (2)

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By SXGuy
03rd Jul 2020 19:15

Right click the link, and select open in new window.

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By sparkler
04th Jul 2020 11:07

Thanks for the suggestion - I tried this but right-clicking didn't give me that option unfortunately. In the end I managed to get through to WebChat at HMRC, who advised me turn on the option in my browser settings to open the tax return in adobe as a download rather than in the browser pdf viewer which uses the same window.

Hopefully this will have worked - I will have to wait until my client has signed and returned the tax return to check when I submit it that the reference number doesn't change!

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