So, nearly finished another working week. Just updated a clients records and ready to file their VAT return when, wait, HMRC are down for routine maintenance. But a quick look at their schedule says they should be up.
So, I sense another late night or worse, Saturday working.
I thought that wasn't starting until midnight on the 7th so that all VAT returns could filed first. I hope that's the case anyway, as I have two to file tomorrow!
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Jenny
Responses are my opinion based on the information provided. All information should be thoroughly checked before being relied on.
There's scheduled maintenance and system upgrades affecting most HMRC systems from Thursday to Wednesday April the 11th... And if IT upgrades that I've witnessed in the past are anything to go on I wouldn't plan anything for a couple of days after that.
They were taken to task by Information age for the poor timing of the upgrades coming at the year end combined with the fact that the upgrades were only announced last week
for VAT specific issues I'm sure that you've seen this Kris
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Kris, some years ago, I had a problem submitting a VAT return online at a client's premises. The problem at the time was that HMRC's servers were unable to cope with demand when lots of submissions were being made within a couple of days of the deadline (this was the sixth of whichever month it was) - it would get so far then give an error indicating the server was busy.
The whole saga is slightly complicated by the fact that in the end I decided to submit the return from home, but my own internet connection was down (an issue affecting all my ISP's customers in my area) - the end result being that the return had to be submitted late.
HMRC issued a penalty, as you'd expect - but we didn't take it laying down: We took it (and the print outs I'd made of the error page from their site) to a tribunal, who ruled in our favour; my own connection problems were deemed irrelevant because that wouldn't have been an issue if HMRC's servers had been able to cope. IIRC, the final wording of their report said something like "It's quite ludicrous for HMRC to penalise someone for the late submission of a VAT return when the ultimate cause of that is HMRC's own systems being unable to cope."
The bottom line: You are trying to submit the returns, so it's not your fault if HMRC's site is unable to accept those submissions - but whenever their site throws a wobbly, always take a print out of the page (print to PDF to save paper until and unless the print out is actually needed). That way, if HMRC try to penalise you or your client, you have evidence that the fault was with their servers that you can take to a tribunal.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
The good thing is that the client has paid on time, I had a look at HMRC's site and they say in such circumstances no penalty would be issued. I shall wait and see.
I tried to submit a P46 today and the software told me that the Gateway didn't recognise my client's ID and password, so after checking and double checking I tried to log in to the Gateway directly and it told me that the ID and password was wrong, so guessing they are still working on it? ALthough according to the link Shaun provided they should be working but with delayed responses, I can't even log in?
