Danbro has welcomed the latest recommendation by Lord Carter of Coles, that the filing dates for personal self assessment tax returns should be 31 January for returns filed electronically and 31 October for paper returns.

In his Review of HM Revenue & Customs online services published on 22 March 2006, Lord Carter recommended that the filing dates for income tax self assessment returns should be changed from 31 January to 30 November for e-filed returns and to 30 September for paper returns. The Government accepted these proposals but offered a period of consultation on the implementation of Lord Carter's recommendations generally.

The Association of Accounting Technicians, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, the Association of Taxation Technicians, the Chartered Institute of Taxation, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales, and the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners held a number of meetings with H M Revenue & Customs and H M Treasury over the past three months and conducted a survey of members to obtain statistical evidence to demonstrate the likely effect that the change of filing dates would have. Lord Carter asked to see the new evidence and having done so met with representatives of the eight bodies to discuss it in detail.

We are pleased with the news as under the previous recommendations we felt that our busy period would have been transferred to the traditional holiday periods of July and August which would have impacted hugely on staffing costs.

The new announcement also demonstrates that the consultations period has been effective and the views of accountants and professional bodies have been listened to.