VAT : Oh what I would do for a world where things actually made sense.
by Developer @ pebbl.co.uk on Sunday, 28 April 2013
Another rant post I'm afraid. After finally managing to submit my first VAT Return online, I spotted a link where I could give feedback to HRMC. It's only after merrily filling out a short complaint in their textarea that I spot the words "350 character limit"... forget how simple it is to limit a textarea, or to give a character counter... as usual I'm not supposed to expect the same level of quality from a government run website to that of the rest of the commercial world, or so it would seem, but I keep falling into that trap. So rather than completely truncate what I wrote I thought I'd post it here:
350 chars is not enough!
As usual, whenever I end up having to do dealings with any branch of the HRMC online it's as if only those who have studied Tax law could navigate and understand exactly what is expected, and only those who spot small links at the top right (a very bad location for western eyes) will find some of the most important navigation items. After your tenth page, third dead-end and twentieth bullet point starting with a complicated "IF" statement, you are already lost as to what applies and what doesn't.
My main complaint is that there is hardly any tailoring to the individual user, or type of business, something that the business world has to do otherwise they face losing custom. The whole experience when dealing with anything tax related is so impersonal I spend most of my time unsure if I've actually managed to do things correctly -- which is all I wish to do. This has been so much to the point that I have now taken on an accountant, and even now, things are still murky.
If the above wasn't bad enough, you even have inaccuracies in your forms. I've recently signed up to the flat-rate VAT Scheme, and if I had gone ahead reading your nine box VAT form myself, I would have filled out the values as it was asked. Thankfully my accountant advised me that I should be filling out box 7 with gross figures... there is no mention of this on the form itself.
Overall, I got the same experience from the VAT system as I have done with the Self Assessment system, the only positive is that the VAT form is much, much shorter.
Anyone might think this complication is done on purpose to create jobs...
Oh and one more thing...
The form doesn't even allow for return characters...!?! It doesn't tell you this however, it just gives you an error back saying "incorrect format" — good work HRMC.
