HMRC has announced that self assessment customers will no longer automatically receive paper returns. This is part of efforts to encourage customers to move online, and cut unnecessary paper use, it claims.
Last year some 94% of HMRC’s ‘customers’ filed their returns online, and there has been 110% increase in customers registering to communicate digitally.
Taxpayers will still be able to file a paper return if they choose. Anyone who has filed on paper in the past will now receive a letter to file. If they still wish to file on paper they can download a blank version of the return, or call HMRC to request one.
HMRC want everyone to mange their tax affairs through their Personal Tax Accounts, and stressed communicating digitally will be the default method moving forward.
Angela MacDonald. HMRC’s Director General for Customer Services said: “Most customers manage their tax affairs online. It’s easy, secure and available 24 hours a day.”
These latest efforts are part of a larger initiative to reduce the amount of paper produced by HMRC. From April it will stop providing more than 3 million blank P45s and 11 million P60s. HMRC said that the vast majority of employers already use their existing HMRC, free or commercial software to produce P45s and P60s their employees.
