The Revenue achieved RECORD numbers of e-tax returns ... by NOT shifting to GOV.UK

The only thing wrong with the "old" HMRC site is you cannot enter punctuation or carriage returns in the "notes/comments" box of the self assessment form. Otherwise, LEAVE IT ALONE!!!!

Wife had to make a TAX return this year ...

... went through all the online forms which seemed to be fairly clear and easy but the assessment came out at £200 more than it should have been. The discrepency was the amount that had already been deducted from the state pension, didn't seem to be anyway to correct that on the forms (will sort out a rebate later). Then when it came to make the payment it shunted us off to some other website where the information was not clear at all, they wanted a reference, gave a description of what it should look like, and next to the description something that looked like it was an example.

No where did it say "here is the effing number you use" so we ended up making a phone call and navigating the call centre to find some one that could point out where the information was. They didn't seem to have any idea as to what page we were actually looking at on the screen, and had us go though some other mechanism to navigate to another part of the online tax system where they knew the reference was.

HMRC have always been helpful, but last year they just seemed as lost as everyone.

Did they hire the Barclay's designers?

Looks like they hired the muppets who have made Barclay's online banking so slow and barely usable. Or is there an infinite supply of these clowns available whenever anyone thinks it's time to spoil something that users have found the workarounds for?

It is a Plan

Make the web sites so god awful that the punters have to telephone to get anywhere. That way more staff get employed and the unemployment goes down, master stroke!

Really?

Odd.

I received a letter last year saying that as my circumstances had changed I'd had a Self Assessment record set up for me.

And that was on gov.uk (http://hmrc.gov.uk/yourtaxreturn).

Which all worked - although this does probably explain why it has an orange BETA icon on it.

And, J.G.Harston will be pleased to know that you still cannot put carriage returns into the comment field.

Axe ground

I followed the link to the GOV.UK spew of links.

There's a filter box to the left - I used it. I then bookmarked the page. That''s a much better route to Self Assessment than the contorted "start with a Google" that I usually use each year.

Cheers

And still no IPv6

And there *still* isn't an IPv6 AAAA record for it.

Hmm

"something that users have found the workarounds for"

Well there's your answer.

If you hadn't found a way around the gratuitous annoying hurdles they wouldn't have had to build new ones.

HMRC's core portal was never really an information source that was aimed at businesses, more accountants and tax subject matter experts, thats where Businesslink fitted in. When they got rid of Businesslink along with Direct.gov GDS didn't build a business focussed portal, preferring a citizen focussed "minimal viable product".

Now there is a significant gap for business focussed information for SME's, the engine house of the economy.

Gov UK +1

Frankly my take is that gov.uk is a vast improvement fundamentally.

1. It was thought out and designed

2. It can vastly simplify access to government services

3. It has helped reduce the number junk gov dept websites

4. It enables UK Gov to centralise competent staff to benefit all departments

Gov.uk and data.gov.uk are a fundamental step in the right direction...and if anything this smells like a power struggle.

As a UK tax payer, I don't appreciate paying for a hairdresser turned webmaster in every department to make yet another junk website.

Personally I found that the GDS portion of filing my self assessment tax return this year - which included online identity verification, to allow me to log into the old directgov site - worked very well. Both the old and new parts worked together quite harmoniously.

Why were lessons from Gateway not learned?

Reading The Register accounts of GOV.UK and GDS I am mildly confused.

As a worker on the Government Gateway project in the early 2000's I was both impressed and driven by the management team as well as my fellow colleagues. The project had been rescued from the original contractors after being a near disaster! The architecture was/is sound, the design and coding was robust and tight, and the Testing was probably the best I've seen on any software project. It was not exactly a 90-day implementation - more like 2-3 years - but still it was on time, on budget and a very successful software project I was proud to be involved in; albeit in a small way.

So what has happened? Why am I reading about disasters? Why have lessons not be learned? I still use Gateway as my template 10 years on for how a large project should be run. So I fail to understand why GDS & GOV.UK is such a mess - Gateway showed the way so why not follow it? Is it someones Ego or what?

To give gov.uk its dues, I haven't used it as anything like a Power User but I like it. It generally gets me the information I need quickly, it is responsive, easy to use - pretty much all I have needed so far. If there are bits missing from the legacy sites that are important then that's a failure in execution but the principle behind the revamp was sound, and sorely needed.

Coming from Northern Ireland where things were particularly bad (government agencies whose idea of an online service was providing you a PDF to download and post to them) this was like a revelation.

If there are bits missing then they should be added in - I do really hope they aren't treating it as 'job done' or it will end up being left to rot.