HMRC confirms problem with online tax system
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has today stepped forward to confirm that an error on the online taxation website could lead to many UK taxpayers assuming their taxes have been sorted when this may not be the case. The situation relates to taxpayers who owe less than £2000 on their 2007/08 tax bill but are given the option to have their tax collected from PAYE during the 2008/09 tax year.
Apparently this option should not be available to those paying tax after 31 December 2008 and the authorities are currently looking into the situation to see how this happened. There is a serious risk that some taxpayers will assume their taxation issues have been resolved when in fact they will have over extended the deadline of the 31 January 2009 and may be liable to fines and interest on unpaid tax.
This is the latest in number of glitches to hit the site including a Scandinavian led scam which copied the HMRC website and attempted to defraud UK taxpayers via ID theft. While there is no doubt that the system has proved very useful to millions of taxpayers in the UK the more issues with security the less likely people are to use the system.
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