HMRC will suspend website on April 5, I don’t think so…

The Telegraph reported today that HMRC will temporarily shut down its website for four days, just as the new tax year starts. We were able to confirm that this is not the case and there will be no noticeable change in service over this period.

The misinformation was reported on the telegraph website and picked up by some other online news sites. This resulted in many angry comments:

“Abysmal timing, but absolutely typical of the civil service.” worldwatch

“HMRC – about as useful as a chocolate teapot.” Ryscemara

These quotes were among the more moderate comments that were posted and the sentiment is understandable, but we were able to obtain our own quote from the HMRC that clears up the confusion. This is what they stated:

“Our website is not going down, it will be working normally throughout this routine annual maintenance.”

“The planned system downtime is part of our normal business operation and happens twice a year (in April and October).”

“It’s necessary to allow us to implement changes to our IT systems in preparation for the new tax year.”

“This particular one has been planned for the last 9 months and whilst some IT services will be affected we have taken steps to minimise impacts where we can.”

“The majority of our online web services will be available for customers and key trade systems such as our import and export system are not impacted.”

When asked again for clarification if any part of the site will be down, they responded, “some [parts of the site will be down], full list to be published on our website, its one of the quietest times of the year.”

The source that we spoke to commented that they tried to contact the Telegraph many times about the article, via telephone and e-mail, but were unable to get through. So we have decided to post this article wherever we can. If you would like to help us please share article this on Linked in, Twitter or Facebook, using the share buttons below.