Angela and Philip Frost

THE Oxford tax office is "in chaos", according to a husband-and-wife business team who face £200 penalties.

Angela Frost, who runs Own Your Lifestyle with her husband Philip, claims she delivered her self-assessment tax return on January 31, the day before the deadline.

But the couple, who distribute Aloe Vera products from their home in Berinsfield, have each received a £100 penalty notice from Revenue and Customs.

The problems arose after the Revenue and Customs website crash on January 31, which led to the deadline for tax forms being extended by one day. The system had been overloaded by taxpayers making last-minute returns.

She said: "Despite the problems with the website, I still managed to get our individual tax forms completed by 9.30am on January 31.

"But they don't have a system for doing a partnership form online, so I have to fill in a form and take it up to the Cowley office.

"I took it up before 9am on January 31 and dropped it off because I wanted to be sure it arrived. The next thing was that we both got penalty notices.

"Apparently, someone was marking them off on the system saying that they had arrived, while someone else was unmarking them off by sending them out to be dealt with by other offices."

When she went in to complain, she was told the tax return had been received but was told a penalty notice was still being issued and they would have to appeal.

"The information on the penalty notification is completely wrong -it had a different reference number and was addressed to Phil and Angie's Healthcare, when we had changed the name three years ago.

"As far as I am concerned, it's a total farce. When I phoned last night, they said they had received the partnership notice on time.

"You wonder - how many people are they doing this to? Lots of people must post them or put them into the collection box like I did.

"As far as I can see, it's total incompetence. Surely, if they have marked them as having been received, they shouldn't be issuing penalties?"

She added: "One of the problems is that our individual tax returns go to a different office from the partnership ones. Why can't they go to the same place? I'm not surprised no one knows what's going on."

Revenue and Customs spokesperson Jennie Kendall said:" We are very sorry to hear of the problems this customer has had. No one who submits a return on time will ever have to pay a penalty. We apologise to both customers for any distress caused by the penalty notice issued to them in error."

"We can't comment on individual cases. There are details on the notice about how to appeal against a penalty, which may not be due."

She added: "We receive nearly two million tax returns in last ten days coming up to the deadline. Unfortunately, with a project of this scale, things will very occasionally go wrong. We make every effort to minimise mistakes, when they do occur we sort things out as quickly as possible."

10:43am Thursday 6th March 2008

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