80% Of UK Employers Choosing To File Tax Returns Online

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

04 June 2008

HM Revenue and Customs announced last week that more than 80% of UK employers have chosen to file their end-of-year returns online - an increase of about 10% compared to last year.

"I'm delighted that so many employers have successfully filed online," commented Mike Shipp, HMRC Director of PAYE, SA and NICs.

He continued:

"We were determined to make the experience as customer friendly as possible and these figures suggest we've gone a long way to achieving this. I'm immensely grateful to those employers and their representatives who have given us their views of the service. This feedback has been invaluable in enabling us to provide the quality of on-line service to which our employer customers are entitled."

"We will continue to encourage smaller employers to file online by listening to their requirements, and meeting those requirements whenever we can and I hope those small employers who file using the traditional media are encouraged to make the switch to online services."

Each year, around 1.8 million employers throughout the UK are required to inform HMRC by 19th May of their employees' tax and national insurance payments for the last financial year.

Employers meet this obligation by sending in a P14 noting each individual employee's payments, and a P35 summarising the details for their entire workforce.

Of a total of 1.6 million returns received, around 1.4 million (87%) were received online. There was also a 23% increase in the number of P14 Returns successfully filed compared to the same time last year.

According to HMRC, almost 60 million P14s were received. 70% of these have already been posted successfully to NIRS (National Insurance Recording System).

E-filing became mandatory for all employers with 50 or more employees in 2007/8.

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