Employment Related Securities Online Service

24 July 2015

The ERS online service has been live and running since Monday afternoon (20 July). In the first four days since the service went live again over 1500 additional returns have been filed.

HMRC initially limited the number of users who could access the system to help them monitor its performance. This means that more customers will have received a message advising them to try again another time. HMRC understand that may have caused frustration for those customers and apologise for the inconvenience.

The limit has now been removed, so customers should be readily able to access the system and file returns.

HMRC are encouraging customers who have not filed their returns to do so as soon as possible, and by 4 August at the latest. As customers have been unable to file their annual return by the 6 July 2015 deadline, HMRC will extend the deadline so as long as returns are filed on or before Tuesday 4 August HMRC will not charge a penalty.

There is no need to contact HMRC.

HMRC have been asked whether customers who filed their returns on or before 3 July and received an on-screen acknowledgement might need to re-submit their returns. HMRC are still investigating the potential impact on those customers. A further message will be published about this in due course.

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