Suggestions by the Institute of Taxation that new provisions in the Finance Bill on self-assessed tax payments would lead to the collapse of the system were "alarmist and unwarranted", the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said at the institute's annual dinner yesterday.

Mr McCreevy said he was surprised at the institute's view, expressed by its chairman, Mr Rory Meehan, on the moving of the date for the filing of self-employeds' tax returns from January 31st back to November 31th.

Last week Mr Meehan said that four out of five members surveyed believed "the proposed changes would lead to an unworkable situation for themselves and their clients".

Yesterday Mr Meehan issued a further statement, saying the proposed changes would cause hardship for people paying a pension premium because they would have to do so two months earlier than previously. Under the current scheme a pension premium can be paid with the balance of tax by the return filing deadline of January 31st.

But Mr McCreevy said that he had received expressions of support for his proposal, "seeing it as a progressive simplification of the tax system and deploring the over reaction which it provoked in some quarters". "I felt that this combined `pay and file' date would streamline the present system, improve compliance and help to bring both simplicity and certainty into the whole process," he said. He said that he had already responded to concerns from the profession by saying that the self-assessment changes would not be introduced until an order for a particular year of assessment was made.

He also pointed out that the measures would have the effect of putting back the existing date for payment of preliminary tax by one month, to November 31st.

Mr McCreevy added that the April 6th financial year was a tradition arising from calendar changes in the 1750s. "I think that it is reasonable to offer the view that now, over two centuries later, some change might be needed.

"If the income tax year ended on December 31st, accounts could be filed by, for example, June 30th following and tax paid by 30th September," he said.