It's No to November!

Back from this evening's Wyman Symposium at the ICAEW, where Lord Carter announced that he has written to the Paymaster General saying that he has changed his mind about the tax return deadlines. He has now proposed that the deadline for online filing should remain at 31 January, but that the deadline for paper should be 31 October from 2008 onwards. Although we need to hear it from the government, it seems that it is all over bar the shouting and the fine tuning.

The abolition of substitute returns remains, which I know is an issue for some people, but Lord Carter made some fair points about the need to move to a modern method of delivery when there is so much to be gained from it. The proposal to change the enquiry window so that it runs from the date of submission rather than the latest filing date also remains.

More will follow, but the essential news is that, provided you are ready for online filing by 2008, you will not have to complete all your tax returns two months early.

We're pleased to have played our part, and the 5,500 of you who wrote in certainly played yours. But the unsung heroes of this are those from the tax representative bodies who have spent months negotiating this deal and have finally succeeded. They have done a great job, and deserve our thanks.