Bugs plague launch of all-in-one employer return

Wednesday 09 February 2022

The launch of a long-awaited all-in-one online form for employers was disrupted by multiple bugs.

The combined Employer Return (CER) was designed to allow users to file their tax, Social Security, manpower and benefits in kind on one return.

Employers were reminded in 2021 that they would be required to complete the monthly form starting from January 2022 and with a deadline of 15 February 2022.

On February 2, the launch day of the new online CER form, multiple errors were reported by users attempting to file their returns.

But the next day, the website was taken down for two hours to “deploy and test some fixes”.

The issues claimed to be fixed included: 

• ‘Employer TIN not a match’ error;

• invalid business reference;

• duplicate TINS being created;

• change of effective rate not re-calculating;

• ‘oops' error message at tailor return step;

• error message when ‘0’ entered as a value in gross income;

• guide wording on the employer web services log in page updated; and

• benefit in kind help link not working.

It was also noted that the following items were still being worked on:

• ability to print returns;

• the December employees not always being pulled into the January return; and

• email confirmation that a return has been submitted.

Asked about the status of the CER form and the required fixes, a Government spokesperson told Express said that the "majority" of the reported errors were "resolved within 24 hours."

They added: "A further enhancement to the system – enabling an employer to produce a printable .pdf record of the electronic return - is due to be added in the next couple of weeks.

“We have been communicating with our employer payroll contacts throughout the CER implementation to keep them informed and we will continue to do so.”