Efficient processing in the digital age (less paper and more efficient process)

Efficient processing in the digital age (less paper and more efficient process)

Until now the Government’s digital by default approach has had slow adoption. In his Autumn Statement, the Chancellor confirmed his commitment to making savings of 18% to the HMRC budget by scrapping paper processing and committing to central Government’s Digital Drive.

It is not surprising that the Chancellor chose to mention HMRC. HMRC has dabbled with technology at the turn of the millennium introducing a stamp duty land tax (SDLT) online system via the government gateway in 2003, then in 2008 leading the way by making it mandatory for online submission of Stamp Duty Land Tax returns. HMRC were first to mandate such online processes.

Today SDLT submissions online is the norm and is widely accepted with obvious benefits to streamlining the whole UK property tax collection process. The conveyancer submits the return to HMRC and receives the certificate (SDLT5) on the same day, cutting out any paper handling and postage process. This year HMRC also extended further ways to pay the property tax online. We all pay for things happily online and early on HMRC grasped the fact that this would be an efficient process to adopt.

It is not just Government changing processes; Legal IT has also plays an important part here. Where government agencies tend to fall over is completing the beginning and end processes so that the law firm can carry out the task as quickly and efficiently as possible; this is where Legal IT suppliers provide better all-round processes such as populating SDLT returns with data previously entered into case management systems and storing records of the transaction, aiding required compliance processes.

However, Legal IT couldn’t do all this without the government agency first providing the platform and being open to professional industry innovators. It seems not all government agencies give much thought to the ‘whole’ process, concentrating just on their part of the process but this is a mistake. A recent example posing a potential threat to law firms practicing in the wider UK marketplace is a new agency – Revenue Scotland – which was created as a result of the devolution of property tax in Scotland (now called Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT)).

LBTT was introduced in April this year replacing Stamp Duty Land Tax in Scotland and quickly became an example of government processes causing conveyancers to take a backward step. Law firms couldn’t export data from their case management systems; third-party developers weren’t being supported due to a ‘lack of resources’ at Revenue Scotland.

There are lessons to be learned from the Revenue Scotland experience and with the further devolution of property tax taking place in Wales in spring 2018, the Welsh Assembly should readily be receptive and open to engagement with the legal profession and IT industry experts such as SDLT.co.uk.

A further example of how agencies and Legal IT can work together to streamline lawyers processes, is in relation to the requirement to register company mortgages/charges with Companies House.

Changes to the Companies Act coupled with Companies House willingness to embrace technology and working with Legal IT industry professionals, has paved the way for significant improvements to what was a large administrative burden both in time and expense. The paper process which involves delivery via post, often resulted in exceeding the mandatory 21 day deadline to register with Companies House. The lawyer would then incur additional costs for obtaining a Court Order only to have to resubmit the documents again by post delaying matters further. Now the whole process can be handled within 24 hours of e-submitting the required information to Companies House. In this situation it is not only an improvement in the processes, which is also paper free, but substantially reducing the risk of further costs of missing the 21 day deadline and because there is no lengthy time delay waiting for delivery of the certificate by post the lawyer can close the matter and bill the client much earlier.

In times when our climate is changing and our storms are of sufficient force to get names, it’s worth noting that many law firms are still not rushing to adopt paperless solutions (only half of MR forms submissions are done online). When the weather can disrupt all rail and other transport, the risk of important time sensitive mortgage registrations stuck on a cold and lonely station platform due to flooding should be a cause for concern – our courts are already overburdened and soon to reduce in number simply obtaining court orders will become more time consuming and are completely unnecessary with wider adoption of digital by default processes. It should come as no surprise to lawyers therefore that, like HMRC, Companies House are considering mandatory e-submission.

With solutions like SDLT.co.uk and MR01.co.uk which all have their own APIs, IT savvy law firms and legal software providers can integrate their in-house or case management systems to maximise efficiencies: it’s not about a paperless office it’s about less paper and more efficient process. All the government projects help to improve efficiencies and reduce costs which in turn help reduce reliance on paper and by defining and improving the process electronically also improve compliance.

For more information on Stamp Duty Land Tax or Registering a Company Mortgage in the most efficient way; lookup www.SDLT.co.uk or www.MR01.co.uk or call 0845 65 26 856.

Archie Courage, Managing Director at SDLT.co.uk

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