HMRC Glitch Delays Lisa Payments

HMRC has suffered a systems glitch that led to Lifetime Isa clients across all providers not having their bonus paid on time this month.

Under the Lisa rules, the government will pay a 25 per cent bonus each tax year, which can be up to a maximum of £1,000 if the individual saver puts in £4,000 a year

The FT reports that in a letter sent out to its 70,000 Lifetime Isa clients on Wednesday (March 4) Hargreaves Lansdown said HMRC was experiencing a "technical error", which meant the revenue had not been able to send the money yet.

It is understood the issue affected every provider of the Lifetime Isa product.

According to the letter, Hargreaves was "working with HMRC" to resolve the issue and get the bonus paid to clients "as soon as possible" and by yesterday afternoon (March 5) Hargreaves reported the issue had been resolved and payments would be made in due course.

Danny Cox, spokesman for Hargreaves Lansdown, acknowledged that payments were "slightly delayed from HMRC" but said: "These have now been received and are on client accounts. We will write again to let clients know."

It is understood HMRC had identified an issue with a small number of claims, which prevented bonus payments being processed as usual.

An HMRC spokesperson said:

“We are aware of a technical issue, which has delayed the payment of Lifetime Isa bonuses. The issue has now been fixed and outstanding claims for bonus payments are being processed. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”

Given that digital is meant to be the bright new future of taxation in the UK, "wee glitches" such as this do not inspire me with confidence!

Tax does have to be taxing.

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