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Tax returns online: how was it for you?

Eugene Lacey ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 01 Oct 2002 15:16 BST

As the deadline for filing tax returns passed yesterday, many ZDNet UK readers will be breathing a sigh of relief today that this tiresome annual chore has been completed once again. But it wasn't easy; it never is. For many, probably the last sunny weekend of autumn was spent moving piles of building society statements around the living room floor.

The Inland Revenue has sought to gently persuade the public that filing tax returns need not be like a visit to the dentist. Using its online filing system, you don't even have to do the calculations any more. The free, online Web service does them for you.

Well, it does when it's up and running. Once again the Revenue was left with huge omelettes on its face as the system spluttered in the run-up to yesterday's deadline. On the final day it worked -- but only just. One ZDNet UK reader phoned in to outline the problems she'd encountered.

The system had rejected her filing with an alarming message: "An error has occurred in transmission. You cannot resubmit." After a short wait to get through to the help line, she was told to ignore this message -- and log in again using her unique ID and password (issued by mail). As promised by the helpdesk, once she reopened her online account the magic message she had been hoping for was waiting to greet her: "Your tax return has been received."

So was this reader furious at all the messing around? Er, no, actually she was rather complimentary about the service. "Having worked it all out myself last year, I was absolutely delighted with the auto calculation tool. I didn't have to wait that long to get through to the help line -- and when I did the operator was well informed and reassuring."

This is a good result for the Revenue, and one that will doubtless have been repeated in many homes and small businesses. The Revenue would prefer not to have had more teething problems with the system this year -- after previous niggles, but overall the system seems to have held up and made progress.