Four out of five online tax returns fail - official

The Inland Revenue will struggle to meet its target of getting half the UK population to use its electronic services by the end of 2005.

That's the conclusion of a National Audit Office (NAO) report that shows that four out of five attempts to file online tax returns end in failure. This figure was "indicative of early problems", the NAO said.

Only 39,000 taxpayers filed self-assessment forms online during the 1999-00 tax period.

According to the report published today, "Particular difficulties were experienced in submitting completed returns. System records show that nearly four out of five attempted submissions in 1999-00 did not succeed first time.

"The department noted that there could have been a number of reasons - the taxpayer may, for example, have input invalid data or not filled in a box that needed to be completed."

The NAO acknowledges that the first-time success rate has improved since 2000, reaching 70 per cent in the three months to December 2001.

Nevertheless, those who do encounter problems filing their returns are likely to fail on successive occasions pushing down the overall average.