An online tool has been created to help people check whether they can claim universal credit and tax credits according to their postcode, which follows complicated changes made to the benefits system

A broadband service outage suffered by BT and its customers affected firms and agents across the country after the Government Gateway was knocked out, preventing submissions and affecting tax compliance

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has published its response to HMRC’s consultation on proposals to streamline the gift aid small donations scheme (GASDS), and says more needs to be done to modernise the system in a way that encourages spontaneous donations whilst reducing administration

More than 1.5m people have already renewed their tax credits, with many choosing to go online, despite there still being four weeks left until the 31 July deadline

Deloitte has become the latest of the Big Four to target the start-up and SME accounting market, with the announcement of a £2.5m investment to launch Propel, a cloud-based service offering combining record keeping and analytics

A shortage of skilled IT specialists and outstanding questions about the future IT model when HMRC replaces the annual £700m CapGemini Aspire contract with the cheaper Columbus setup from 2017, are key risks for the tax authorities

The UK software division of Wolters Kluwer has launched an initiative to integrate its UK software with a number of UK cloud accounting providers in a move that helps accountants improve efficiency and their service offering to small and medium sized businesses

HMRC has reached a final agreement with its major IT suppliers on the phased exit from its longstanding £10bn Aspire IT contract, set to end in 2017, which will see the tax authority make the move to using a mix of existing and new suppliers including SMEs for smaller-scale work packages in the run up to the complete rollout of digital tax accounts

With an increasing number of phishing attacks from scammers purporting to be the taxman, HMRC has updated its guidance on how to distinguish between genuine contact and phishing attempts, with new information about identifying text messages, which it is using as part of a new security verification process for online accounts 

HMRC has revealed it is developing a new online service for people who want to raise complaints about the service they have received in relation to PAYE or income tax