The Carter Report, commissioned to investigate the development of on-line Revenue services in the UK has also suggested that the self-assessment filing dates for income tax payers be brought forward to 30 September.

The recommendations of the report have been welcomed by the UK Government, with an indication that, all things being equal, the proposals for change will be given effect in 2008. The specific proposal in relation to filing dates is to bring the deadline for filing personal tax returns forward from 31 January to 30 November for those filing electronically and to 30 September for those filing paper returns.

Many members have contacted us to express their concerns over aspects of Lord Carter's report.

Since the publication of the report on Budget Day we have been actively trying to achieve a consensus with other representative bodies in order to maximise the effectiveness of any action we take.

On 3 April 2006 representatives of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland, the Chartered Institute of Taxation, The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, The Association of Tax Technicians and the Association of Accounting Technicians met to discuss these issues and agreed a course of action.

The proposal to accelerate the filing of personal tax returns was unexpected and there had been no public consultation before it was announced. The change would impose additional and very unwelcome extra costs without producing any compensating advantages.

We are jointly seeking urgent talks with HMRC and with the Government in the hope of reversing this proposal.

At the time of writing, it was agreed to limit our public statements on the issue in order to give our initiative the best chance of success, but we will jointly review and if necessary change this policy as the situation develops.

We believe that acting together in this way will give us the best chance of achieving the result that our members want.

A summary of the recommendations of the Carter report is reproduced at 2.01 below.