The Farmers' Union of Wales today accused the UK Government's Revenue and Customs department (HMRC) of adopting a "heavy-handed" attitude by forcing farmers in areas with no or poor broadband provision to fill in their VAT returns on-line.
The union's business development director Emyr James reminded farmers of a legal obligation to comply with new regulations relating to filing VAT returns on-line, effective from 1 April this year, but HMRC has no alternative option for those who don't use a computer or don't have access to broadband.
Mr James was commenting on HMRC's reply to FUW representations on behalf of its members who, because of their location, are unable to receive broadband and have no plans to go on-line. "They have confirmed the legislation does not provide exemption and there will be no 'alternative' method to filing on-line.
"To fulfil their obligation, HMRC suggest that they could ask family or friends, who have a computer, to offer them Internet access or, alternatively, employ the services of an agent who could file the return on their behalf," he said.
"This is a typically heavy-handed government approach, showing very little appreciation of the true situation for many small-to-medium-sized enterprises.
"There is still a generation of people in society who did not grow up in an Internet environment and some consideration should have been shown towards this group of people.
"There are many farmers for whom the Internet remains an unfamiliar skill, whilst there are some who distrust modern communications technology. Also, many parts of rural Wales have no reliable broadband provision at all."
To overcome the problem, the FUW will provide a service at its county offices where staff will file members' VAT returns on-line on their behalf. The paper-based summary will be completed in the normal way and taken to the county office.
"This will complement a similar service already provided by county offices, whereby stock movements are registered with BCMS electronically," said Mr James.