HMRC to suspend website on 5 April

Laura Miller
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HMRC plans to suspend online access for the public at the end of the tax year, despite admitting to MPs this week that its telephone-based service is "not acceptable".

The move follows last year's tax chaos when millions of people were given incorrect Pay As You Earn (PAYE) codes, the Telegraph reports. Accountants described the decision to close HMRC's websites from 2-6 April as "very strange" but the taxmen insist it is necessary for routine computer maintenance. Earlier this week, HMRC chairman Mike Clasper told MPs on a Treasury select committee: "The area where we have our biggest challenge is that people want to contact us by telephone and I'm not happy with the service we are providing. It's not acceptable." But people will have to rely on...

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