Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2003/02/03/uk_gets_used_to_etax/

UK gets used to e-tax filing

Not millions. but not tens either.

By Drew Cullen

Posted in Legal, 3rd February 2003 17:24 GMT

Slowly, slowly, the UK's self-employed, small business people, higher rate tax payers and whoever takes the government's fancy, are getting used to filing their returns online.

This year's January 31 deadline saw 324,710 send in their returns by way of the Inland Revenue web site, a hefty 425 per cent up on the previous year.

The increased levels should be regarded as a recovery for the Inland Revenue, especially after its incompetence in giving up "customer" details on its site. In May 2002, the site, jerry- built by EDS, was suspended, while this somewhat gaping hole was plugged.

More e-tax filings will also encourage UK.gov, which is swilling tens of millions of pounds into UK Online, and its offline learning centres. This project is designed to get Net numpties to stop queuing up at the dole office, to stop ringing their benefits supervisors and to start,
inter alia, filing their tax returns online. ®