Corporation tax upload fail!

Psyche

I've made a terrible discovery about HMRC's Corporation Tax return filing service. Apologies if this is ground that has already been covered, I haven't been on the forums for a while.

I've been using the free PDF download from the HMRC's own website. It turns out that: Despite getting a "Successfully submitted" message at the end of the process, and a confirmation e-mail from gateway, some of my returns haven't been going through!!!! Therefore the clients haven't been getting invoices and haven't been paying their tax.

HMRC is aware of the problem, but they have no solution other than to put the onus on the agent go log into the HMRC website a couple of days after filing, and if the return is not there, to download a new one and start again from scratch!

So I have a wonderful weekend ahead of me, of cancelling social plans and redoing goodness knows how many CT returns that have failed to be correctly processed. Just thought I'd share, so that you can have an opportunity to check and see if any of yours have been missed out too.

Monsoon

Ugh, how horrible poor you, that doesn't sound like fun.

May I recommend third party software? Sometimes it's things like this that hammer home it's money we'll spent compared with the varying nightmares HMRC's own software can generate.

Hope it doesn't take as long as you anticipate to fix.

KaySarah

I can sympathise with you as I have been battling with HMRC since the On-line filing's inception. I have taken to screen dumping everything I send them and resort to letter writing enclosing copies of my submissions requesting them to rescinding their penalties as we had acted responsibly and could have reasonably assumed all was in order. When they persist with follow up demands from differing departments, I photocopy the original letter & resend it to the next dept with a hand written covering note listing how many times I have already sent the letter & to whom ... eventually they take heed and we receive a "no further action will be taken" from them.
They should not have unleashed their software on Joe Public if it couldn't be relied upon (surely theirs should be the most reliable of all!) - they have certainly spent enough billions from our taxes on IT systems that they insist we use.

As you will no doubt have gathered - HMRC are not high on my list of respect ..

Sorry Monsoon - don't mean to make little of your response about 3rd party software - but there are an awful lot of sole traders and Carers (who have to run proper payrolls etc) out there who can't afford 3rd party software and have always held HMRC in awe, they therefore expect them to be (almost) perfect - they certainly know how to instil fear ..

Monsoon

KaySarah wrote: »

and have always held HMRC in awe, they therefore expect them to be (almost) perfect -

I think the accountancy bodies and the media aren't doing a good enough job of dispelling this myth! People should never assume HMRC get it right

Psyche

3rd party software

Hi Monsoon, thanks, it is definitely looking as if I'm getting what I paid for! I'm considering switching software in the new year (Quickbooks isn't serving my needs anymore) so iXBRL filing capability will be on my list of things to investigate.

Monsoon

Hi Psyche,

I would definitely look at VT. If you buy VT accounts you get VT Transaction+ with it, which is a bookkeeping package, and integrates into the final accounts production - much time saving! VT will do iXBRL accounts and a tax comp. You then need a tax filing package, such as FTax, Taxcalc or BTC.

I use VT + FTax which are pretty much the cheapest you can get but I find them just fine. I don't know about the pricing/ functionality of the others but I hear good things about them.

The time and frustration you save with it over HMRC's own should mean they pay for themselves in no time

LynWest

Great thread and good to hear i am not the only one. I have only had one say that it's gone through and not touch wood, but i have got to the end of numerous ones and then it fail, or when i try to file it to companies house the authentication code makes the thing fail evern though i am on the phone to Companies House and they confirm all my information is correct. They have had to manually do some IT mumbo jumbo to push my returns past this sticking point. I currently still file paper whenever possible to Companies House because it has been such a pain.

I am seriously considering 3rd party software and will definately look into VT further.

Pysche, i hope that not too much of your weekend is taken up with resubmissions.

Bluewednesday

May I also suggest that PTP is worth looking at? I can not only efile with HMRC but also efile the abbreviated accounts at Companies House - it's so quick and easy and not too expensive