COM130065 | Returns/notices: notices and returns: exemption from electronic filing on grounds of religious beliefs

Companies run entirely by individuals who are practising members of a religious society or order whose beliefs are incompatible with the use of electronic communications are not required to file online.

You should ask any company seeking exemption for this reason to write, in whatever format they wish, stating that they have religious objections and explaining why this prevents the company from filing online.

For example, an individual saying ‘I have religious objections’ is not enough. But a statement such as ‘All the officers and those with the authority of the company to act on its behalf under the Taxes Acts are members of XYZ society, which will not use the internet for reasons of religious beliefs and personal conscience’ would be acceptable.

You should accept such a statement and permit the company to file on paper, unless you have strong grounds to doubt what is said. Refer cases of real doubt to the CT Process team for advice.

Where you accept the reasons for exemption, you should use function ACTP (Amend CT Payer Details) to set the e-filing exception signal to ‘Y’ and print off the CT600 from the HMRC website, stamp the pages with the office stamp and send it to the company for completion.

If necessary, where the request is received close to the filing date and there seems no reason to doubt that this is due to a genuine lack of awareness, you should consider allowing more time to file on paper.