HMRC have announced that unprecedented numbers of taxpayers and agents successfully filed online this year. Even with a disruption to the service, as flagged in eNews and ICAI Tax, over 200,000 Self Assessment returns were successfully filed online on 31 January 2008 with a record 3.7 million online returns filed in total.

HMRC had signalled that everyone who filed electronically or by paper by midnight Friday 1 February 2008 would be treated as having filed on time.

For those who experienced difficulties in meeting this extended deadline due to problems with the HMRC online service, HMRC have stated that “if you experienced problems with the SA service on 31 January or 1 February, and were unable to file by midnight 1 February, please file your return as soon you possibly can. Our systems will issue automatic penalty notices but we will accept claims for reasonable excuse in the usual way. This means we will remove the late filing penalty and treat your return as filed on time where the problems with the HMRC service were the cause of the delay.”