Government admits to SDLT problems

The minutes of the latest HMRC SDLT & Third Party Developers forum at the end of July reveal that the government’s Gateway system for handling the e-submission of SDLT (Stamp Duty Land Tax) forms is still not working properly. The latest problem arose during the last two weeks of July when it was discovered that the system had generated over 15,000 duplicate copies of SDLT submissions. According to forum member and systems developer Archie Courage, HMRC’s initial reluctance to acknowledge there was a problem (caused by a software upgrade on the Gateway system) had caused some law firms to switch back to paper forms and “gave e-submission a bad reputation which it does not need in an apathetic market place”. Full minutes of the meeting, which also looked at phasing out of 2D and CD barcodes can be found at www.hmrc.gov.uk/ebu/dev-forum-minutes.htm

Published on: 27-09-2007