Tax deadline reprieve after website crash

• IBTimes RSS
• Print
• E-Mail
• digg
• Del.icio.us

As the deadline loomed for an estimated 150,000 taxpayers, the Revenue and Customs website crashed for several hours on Thursday.

It caused problems for people trying to lodge their self-assessment returns online - as urged to by authorities - before the Thursday deadline.

Those who failed to meet that deadline faced a stringent penalty of 100 pounds and an additional 60 pounds per day fine.

But in a statement, issued late Thursday, an HMRC spokeswoman confirmed that self-assessment taxpayers had an extra 24 hours to file their returns.

"HMRC's Self Assessment on-line filing service has experienced technical difficulties this morning which has meant that some tax payers have experienced difficulties filing on-line," she said.

"HMRC takes any disruption of service very seriously and to reflect this no-one who files electronically or by paper by midnight Friday 1 February will face a penalty. We very much regret any inconvenience this may have caused."

She did not say what caused the problems.

But critics were scathing of the HMRC, saying it had let down the general public.

In a statement, Tory spokesman, Philip Hammond, attacked the Chancellor. "When will Alistair Darling get a grip," he asked.

• 1
• 2