A YORK accountant is enraged with the Inland Revenue for insisting on fining five of his clients £100 each for "going over deadline" with their self-assessment tax returns.

Terry Doyle, a partner with Clive Owen & Company, of Northminster Business Park, Poppleton, discovered that sending the returns by first-class post on January 30 was not good enough to meet the Saturday, January 31 cut-off. Why? Because the York tax office, in Piccadilly, does not receive a Saturday postal delivery.

A formal objection by Clive Owen & Company prompted a letter from the York Inland revenue, reading: "In this instance the penalty has been correctly charged, as the envelope containing the return was postmarked 5.30pm on June 30, 2004, and date stamped as received by this office on February 2, 2004.

"Although the office was open on January 31 for the receipt of hand-delivered returns, there was no postal delivery.

"Hence, any return posted on January 30 could not have been received before February 2 and would have missed the filing date."

Mr Doyle said he was "astonished", particularly since other tax offices to which he had sent last- minute returns, such as Bradford, Darlington and Durham, all had Saturday postal deliveries.

"Had we been informed that there was no Saturday delivery at York we would have made arrangements to hand deliver them all, but we received no such notification - and as a result it has put us in a hugely embarrassing position.

"The Inland Revenue has a duty to make it possible in every way for people to meet the deadline, otherwise they are in danger of being accused of making things difficult in order to raise revenue through penalties."

Mr Doyle, who is also finance director of York City Football Club, said: "Royal Mail has confirmed to us that it has a standing instruction not to deliver mail to York Inland Revenue on any Saturday.

"But surely, with so much at stake for so many, that instruction should have been temporarily waived to make the process as easy as possible?"

A spokesman for the Inland Revenue insisted that it was right to levy a fine, because the returns "were received by us after what was a widely-advertised deadline".

The York office was normally closed on a Saturday, which was the reason that there were no postal deliveries, but it was especially opened that day for personal callers, "a fact widely publicised in the Evening Press".

He said the onus was on the self-assessed taxpayer to ensure the Inland Revenue received the returns on time.

"Had the accountancy firm called the York office to inquire if there was a postal delivery, it might have better served its clients.

"To leave it until the last moment and then to suggest it was our fault is tenuous to say the least, but the clients of this firm have every right to make a formal appeal against the penalties."

Updated: 12:19 Monday, March 15, 2004