A leading organisation has called on those IT contractors who tried to complete their self-assessment tax shortly before the January 31st deadline but found help lacking to appeal any decision to penalise them.

In news which could highlight the benefits of using an umbrella company, the Low Incomes Tax Reform Group has criticised the advice HMRC provided to those trying to complete the forms for the first time.

The organisation reported that its attempts to assess the provision of help available over the final weekend before the deadline found that it was inconsistent, with some periods where it was poor.

It made a number of calls to the helpline number provided for the forms and found an average waiting time of 14 minutes per call in the afternoon, with a number of occasions later in the evening involving the caller being informed that the lines were too busy and that they should call back later.

HMRC recently warned IT contractors who have completed their self-assessment return to beware of the number of scammers using this to try and obtain their account information.