If everything is to be 'computerised' what will happen to all the overpaid/pension privileged public 'workers' ? will they be made redundant or just kept on full pay 'in case' ? I wouldn't trust this bunch of muppets to do anything right.

John Korn, North Bay, Canada

I suppose the IT Review is going to be chaired by a Select Committee staffed by a few incompetent MPs whose computer skills/knowledge is non-existent.
So what do you expect??

louis blanc, Liverpool, Merseyside

I currently live outside the UK, I spent over 5 hours yesterday, trying to submit my return. The situation is no better today, So far I have spent 2 hours attempting to get through. The system is a joke. I have to do an annual return to Companies House, in order to keep my business bank account open, so I can eventually cash a cheque from HMRC, for a business that ceased trading over 2 years ago. Talk about double standards.

Frank Tomenson, Phuket, Thailand

Ageed that it shouldn't happen, but why do peple leave filing to the last minute? Most people will have had all the information needed to file since last May!! Why should the Government spend extra millions of tax payers money, just to protect the lazy people who wont get on with filing earlier.

Nigel, Lapford,

Why wait so long before submitting and then complain. If everybody did this on whatever medium the system would fail. I have been self employed for years, we are given months to get the forms in,so I cannot see why people are so poorly organised.

Hilary O'Neill, Plymouth, UK

Filing electronically? I don't even trust the post after last year, I delivered it by hand and waited for it to be stamped.

I don't know where they find these 'consultants' who cost them £billions of our money, and I don't understand why they get paid for failing, I would refuse to sign the cheque if the plumber made a mess.

Evan Owen, Harlech, Gwynedd

I live in France after previously being self employed in the UK. I informed the tax office and was under the impression I did not need to fill in a self assessment form for my UK income of 29p. When I recieved the reminder I phoned up and was advised to register online - which I did and I am still waiting for the access codes several weeks later, even though they should be sent out within 7 days!

Tracy Dane, Romans, France

Margie - It's more likely the Government actually paid for a expensive system but were left with a "cheap and inadequate system" by one of the usual large IT consultancy firms involved in such disasters. When will they learn...?

Chris K, Cheltenham, UK

I suppose none of this has changed the fact that one is not permitted to submit a Short Form online (I tried that a few years ago) and still cannot submit a full-length tax return online as an ex-pat / non-resident...?

I had already given up on the concept of submitting my tax return online, so this news does not surprise me in the least.

"Spinny", Taipei, Taiwan

Q: What kind of prat deliberately waits until the last possible moment anyway?

A: The kind who thinks it's "a bleedin' liberty" that the Government is half as disorganised as they are.

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Why have people failed to mention the other important issue on this matter - namely people have had 10 months to file their self assessments and is it not a personal responsibility on all of us to end the stupidity of filing on the final day. Lemmings come to mind.

Keith Crawshaw, Sheffield, UK

There are ultra high volume sites that get pounded day in day out like eBay, Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, YouTube etc. etc. that very rarely go down.

As a government taxation website you would think they would have the common sense to employ consultants who could actually do the job? 100,000 hits and the site sinks? What a joke!

It is ironic that the tax system fails that is used to collect the money they waste on these failed IT projects.

Ian, London, UK

They had almost 10 months to file their returns and left it to the last day. It's not hard to do it on line and it doesn't take long so why wait untill the last minute?

HMRC and the Goernment are easy targets. I agree that there are many problems caused by them but, and it grieves me to say this as I really hate this lot, don't blame them for the laziness of others.

David, Bawdeswell, UK

I work in the IT industry in software applications development and implementation. One of the key tasks to perform before any system goes live is "maximum load testing" i.e to estimate the largest amount of data hitting the system at any time, and run tests to ensure that the system can handle that load. This is a basic, industry-standard test, which seems not to have been carried out on this system.

Andy Guest, Malvern, UK

I love the English. You have your two great traditions in one story

1- Leave it till the last minute
2- Complain

Having had 9 months to complete the tax returns who is really to blame?

The ability of a website to sustain excessive usage is hardly comparable to the loss of data from previous months.

Oh, and no one who submits their tax returns on Feb 1 gets a fine anyway, there has always been that 24 hour extension regardless of computer crashes....

Steve, York,

If they did buy a cheap and inadequate system then it wouldn't be so bad. The problem is that they buy massively overpriced and inadequate systems!

I don't blame the consultancy companies. I worked for one for years and it was like flogging a dead horse to tell the civil servants that the systems they had designed wouldn't work. In the end we just built systems that wouldn't work and got paid to make them work afterwards.

Adrian, Horley, Surrey

Oh for God's sake - the crash was because hundreds of thousands of inept clowns, potential dodgers, awkward cusses saying 'they're not getting my money until the last minute', fantasists who think they might be 'getting away with something', arrogant 'I'll do it when I'm ready' posers, feckless 'put it off until tomorrow' ditherers and assorted sufferers of various mental ailments left their tax assessment to the last 24 hours. What it sums up for me is that a huge section of the Bitish public is too stupid to be allowed a pencil, let alone a computer.

eric campbell, harrogate, uk

The Revenue have no power to extend the filing deadline, so people who file their tax returns online today will still have a default on their record. Instead, the Revenue are using their management powers not to levy penalties on anybody who files online today.

We need to recruit more IT, maths and science graduates into senior positions in the Civil Service, so that they have someone who can stand up to IT system suppliers without have an entire woolly jumper pulled over their eyes.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

HMRC are generally incompetent. Systems should be designed for the user whereas HMRC has a system to suit their politcal masters. My tax office is 200 miles away. It takes them two months to open the post and then they lose my letter. The self-assessment forms are not easy to complete and a misunderstanding can result in ticking the wrong box. I filed both my wife's and my tax return on-line last June. I had to chase up the amount my wife owed. I set up the payment only to be informed just 10 days before the deadline that a further £1000 was due. Also, small businesses have to purchase software to file their tax on-line.

Barry Crossland, Elland, England

Its the result of hiring expert consultants for months on end at emormous cost to evaluate an unfamiliar IT application, who then impose systems that aren't thoroughly tested in situ on staff who were given no opportunity to have a real imput into the design.

C Bedwell, Colombo, Sri Lanka

No government-run computer system is secure. I sent my tax return in on Tuesday by registered post.

Martin, Newmarket, Suffolk

When I worked in the UK several years ago,everybody was in the PAYE system unless you were self-employed.There was non of this so-called self-assessment.You could not avoid paying tax as it was duducted at source.The system seemed to work well.Why change it?In France we have a very complicated self-assessment form to fill in each year.I always say to people at work that the UK PAYE system was much better and that France should adopt it.Seems to me that the UK is now becoming more like France.My knowledge of the current UK tax system is somewhat lacking ,however,and this self-assessment may not be quite what it seems.A lot seem to have changed in the UK during the last 10 years or so, and it seems to be a different place since I lived and worked there.What is obvious though is people have spent a lot of money they havn't got and had a good old party.Sadly,this all seems to be coming to an end now and I can see many people wanting to leave. I sense there are big changes in the pipeline.

stephen hulton, eure, france

Down for only a single day (the last day I accept) but they have extended it. Calm down and get a life Britain

Charles Levy, London, UK

The government has an absolutely pathetic record when it comes to anything to do with IT or data security. Whitehall is obviously staffed by a bunch of incompetents who hardly even know how to use e-mail, let alone how to set up a secure portal or ensure safe data transmission. And we're supposed to trust them to keep our details secure on this massive database of all our details that they have kindly given the rest of the world -- who know a damn sight more about computers than they do -- access to?

Paul Downes, Milton Keynes, Bucks

The whole thing crashes.

On the most important day.

I'd like to say it was a surprise.

But it isn't.

Sums it up. Etc.

Nick , Cheadle,

Sounds like the usual problem with Governments. Buy a cheap and inadequate system and then wonder why it fails.

margie, victoria, australia