This Is Money reports that HMRC have told Sipp provider AJ Bell that it could not divulge any reliable statistics on pensions:
"Pension scheme services is experiencing systems difficulties in collating intermediate level of detail in some areas. It is now clear that these problems may be more widespread.
IT is currently investigating this but it means the data we have already provided should not be relied upon. Until we are comfortable the data we produce is correct, it would be wrong to provide further summaries which may present a misleading and unreliable picture.."
It is hardly surprising that this situation has arisen, the tax and pensions rules in the UK are "insanely" complex. A cynic might conclude that they were made deliberately complex, in order to prevent ordinary people from understanding them.
Will the new government do something about this?
Aside from some window dressing, I doubt that there will be any major changes that will simplify the system (forthcoming changes to pension and CGT rules may well complicate it further).
Tax does have to be taxing.
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While the IT guys are looking at this maybe they could fix the online SA system as well as they only have about 7 months until I need it and it has been buggered for about three mnonths already.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you file it now then? Worked fine for me. I'd rather not be one of those who wait until 20:00 30/01/11 and then wind up being late.
ReplyDeleteAlso the name of the thread is slightly misleading isn't it? Not realling 'Missing Data' as the title suggests.
8 June 2010 22:06, Sorry, I mislead you I do not need it again until next April (I just cannot count months today for some reason). I have already filed my return for last year.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the SA system is that if you need to amend the return which I did on this occassion, once you amend it and log out you cannot log back in again. Having looked into the problem it turned out that the problem was known about since February and still exists. I guess with HMRC's record on IT projects I will be back to a paper submission next year.
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ReplyDeleteI think the title is correct.
ReplyDeleteIt does not intimate that data has actually been lost but just to the fact that HMRC does not think it is correct.
Credit where credit is due, they are probably right on this one.