IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions Sets UK Record for Tax Return E-Filing

DATCHET, England - 1.745m Returns Filed With HMRC Through IRIS Software by January
Deadline

- IRIS Customers Filed Almost as Many Returns As All Other Software
Vendors Customers Put Together

IRIS Today announced that figures released by HMRC show that returns
filed online using IRIS tax software amounted to an incredible 1.745m in the
run up to the January 31st 2009 deadline.

Rising to the challenge of Lord Carter, for a connected online
Government, by 2012, UK Accountants and Citizens filed a total of 5,759,006
returns online according to HMRC, with just over 5.4m Self Assessment returns
completed for individuals. IRIS’ share - which includes IRIS, PTP and
Drummohr - stands at just over 46%, of all self assessment returns submitted
using third party software. 1.745m returns were filed using IRIS software, as
opposed to 1.98m with all other software combined. Some 1.68m were filed
online directly with HMRC.

IRIS customers have always been at the forefront of electronic filing.
Paul Aplin, Chairman of the ICAEW Tax Faculty and a partner at the west
country firm, A. C. Mole made history using IRIS to officially file the first
electronic tax return in 1997 using the pre-cursor to e-filing, the
electronic lodgement system. This was reported widely in the national and
accountancy press at the time and was included in the highlights of 1997 by
the Financial Times. Following on from this, A. C. Mole was approached by
HMRC and asked to file the first tax return via the internet in December
2001.

Paul Aplin commented: “E-filing was once a minority interest, but the tax
compliance landscape has now changed fundamentally with over two thirds of
this year’s self assessment returns being filed electronically. IRIS gave us
the edge to file the UK’s first electronic return back in 1997 and more than
ten years on we are still using IRIS. This January - as we have for the past
decade - we again relied on IRIS to enable us to file our returns
electronically.”

As well as leading the way in Self Assessment returns, IRIS customers
also achieved impressive results in Partnership Returns with a 47% share of
returns filed, and Corporation Tax returns with 44% share of returns filed -
greater than all other providers put together, when returns filed directly
with HMRC are taken into account.

While many accountants have been slower to convert to the fast and secure
method of online filing, practices using IRIS software have wholeheartedly
embraced the use of technology to maximise efficiency, due to the common ease
of use across the entire IRIS product range, be it Drummohr, PTP or IRIS.

“We are delighted to have helped our customers and HMRC achieve
impressive results in the shift to e-filing ahead of the January 2009 filing
deadline” said Phill Robinson, Managing Director, IRIS Accountancy Practice
Solutions, “UK Accountancy Practices have increased time saved and improved
accuracy, using our solutions for business, personal and trust tax due to the
total integration with the entire range of IRIS Practice Software modules and
with the systems of HMRC.”

With over 14,000 accountancy practices of all sizes and with over 60% of
the top 50 firms as clients, IRIS is the market leading provider of software
and services to UK accountancy firms. IRIS’ objective is to provide the tools
and services to empower accountancy professionals, optimise operational
efficiency and enable the best chance of competitive advantage.

www.iris.co.uk/practice

www.ptpsoftware.co.uk

www.drummohr.com

DATCHET, England, March 19 /PRNewswire/ –

Source: IRIS Accountancy Practice Solutions

For further information: Carolyn Gordon-Smith, Telephone: +44(0)1386-859090, e-mail: cgs at cimma.co.uk