Editorial

Credit where Credit's Due! 

As reported on TaxationWeb at the end of January, ( No Penalties for Filing Tax Returns or Paying Late up to 2nd February ) HMRC agreed to treat all self-assessment tax returns submitted by midnight on 2 February 2012 as though they had been submitted by the normal 31 January deadline, due to threatened industrial action by HMRC staff. In addition, taxpayers will not have to pay interest on payments due on 31 January 2012, if paid on February 1 or 2.  

Regular readers of my editorials will know that I have not been slow to criticise HMRC in the past for some of their actions and policies, where I considered the criticism to be justified. It is not very often that I praise or compliment HMRC for their approach (although to be fair, it is not very often that they have given me good cause to do so). However, I thought that HMRC handled this specific situation about the self-assessment deadline and extension of the filing and payment dates both promptly and efficiently. Credit to them for that.

However, I am not sure that the HMRC staff at the centre of industrial action will be quite so complimentary about their employers, particularly in terms of the underlying cause of their dispute.

We were delighted that the HMRC staff have been represented on TaxationWeb through a Guest Editorial by Mark Serwotka, Head of the Public and Commercial Services Union, with the Union's perspective on the reasons for the industrial action by its members, which made very interesting reading. ( hGuest Editorial: Why the PCS is Taking Industrial Action on 31 January )  

And now it seems that HMRC has also 'seen sense' over Business Records Checks - see HMRC Climbs Down Over Business Records Checks. Although the proposals regarding what HMRC refers to as "Leverage Activity" may upset more agents than the original Checks!

Overall, some very positive actions by HMRC of late.

Best wishes,           

Mark McLaughlin 

Managing Editor