New technology to blame for filing system collapse?

Date: 7th February 2008

There are concerns that new technology could be to blame for the major failure of HM Revenue & Customs' (HMRC's) filing system last week.

According to Accountancy Age, it may be possible that a new computer system installed by HMRC suffered from failure, rather than legacy technology - raising queries over whether it was sufficiently tested prior to implementation.

The filing system crashed on the morning of January 31st - the deadline for those filing their tax returns - and was only up and running again later in the day. HMRC extended the deadline to February 1st to allow those who were unable to file on Thursday to do so the following day.

However, there were further reports of people being unable to access the site on Friday.

HMRC says that despite the failure, record numbers of taxpayers used the internet to file their self assessment tax returns this year. However, the system crash has attracted criticism from various quarters.

"It's completely unacceptable that a state-operated system catering for the entire population can't cope with an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 filings in one day, whereas large corporate IT systems regularly cope with volumes vastly in excess of this," George Bull, head of tax at Baker Tilly, told Accountancy Age.