Taxman Deletes Records

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Irregular News for 9.14.05

 

United Kingdom -- The UK Inland Revenue has accidentally deleted almost 1 million taxpayer records from the years 1997 to 2000 because of an error in the way it maintained its databases, a government report claims.

 

The error led to more than 360,000 taxpayers who can't be identified missing out on payments they are due, and a further 22,000 not paying taxes they owe, according to the report, from the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee.

 

PAYE records destroyed

 

Inland Revenue, which is now part of HM Revenue and Customs, acknowledged last year that it had been deleting files accidentally from its income tax database, known as the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system.

 

For ten years the PAYE database has had a housekeeping function that deletes records when they are over three years old, with the assumption that cases will have been closed by then. When the department developed a backlog of cases a few years ago, the housecleaning continued even for cases that had yet to be dealt with, a report said.

 

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[Steve]

Maybe it can happen here.