Millennium bug strikes Revenue's electronic filing system

The Inland Revenue's electronic lodgement system (ELS) has encountered Y2K incompatibilities with users of Digita's tax software. In a comment posted on AccountingWEB's Y2K Problem Page, Kevin Salter of Barnstaple-based Grover Standbury & Co reported that returns filed via ELS on 5 January this year triggered responses from the Revenue's computers acknowledging their receipt on 5 January 1900. The glitch did not appear to affect the validation process within the transmission module, but was limited to the automatic response mechanism. Digita's technical support team told Salter the problem arose because while Digita used four-digit year dates, the TEM module's response mechanism only interpreted the last two digits. Digita sorted the problem out with a software upgrade, he added. A Digita spokesman said a bug fix was mailed out before Christmas and that Salter was only "one of four customers we're aware of" who experienced the bug. In what has become an annual ritual, agents have been reporting periods of downtime on the ELS. A fix was required after the computers rejected 1,900 of 6,400 returns submitted over the weekend of 8-9 January. But the problem was due to the Millennium bug, the Revenue said. In another incident reported by Accountancy Age, some 4,000 notices were sent out dated 4 January 1900. The Revenue said the problem was due to a "software glitch" at its printing contractor and would have no impact on the 31 January self-assessment deadline.

Link to story:

http://www.accountingweb.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=11697&d=101&h=0&f=0&dateformat=%o%20%B%20%Y

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 20, 2000