40% Of Small Businesses Are Resistant To Making Tax Digital

It's clear that many business owners are resistant to HMRC's Making Tax Digital scheme. Mandatory MTD is due to begin on 1 April 2019 for VAT, yet only 60% support it ...

To summarise, businesses with a turnover greater than the £85,000 VAT threshold will be required to hold their VAT records digitally and plan for automated transmission to HMRC electronically.

This comes as no surprise. It's the additional costs and the necessity to embrace technology they don't feel comfortable with, especially in a world with data breaches and insecure communications.

HMRC isn't doing a good job of selling it's Making Tax Digital scheme. It's certainly not helping its case by delaying guidance to both businesses and the IT community who have to integrate MTD into their accounting packages.

However, HMRC has made some concessions to make the whole process more palatable to a wider range of traders. Accountants can now submit data on behalf of their clients and a whole raft of supplementary data HMRC was insisting on has been dropped.

There are now lighter penalties for failure to comply with the requirements of Making Tax Digital in the first year, but this excludes underlying VAT errors in their bookkeeping so businesses shouldn't be complacent.

So, businesses with a turnover in excess of £85,000 per year can't be complacent. HMRC is committed to their Making Tax Digital scheme and it's not going to go away when the Treasury estimates they can pull in another £1.15bn in additional VAT revenue by 2022/23.

If you'd like to find out more about Making Tax Digital and how it will affect your business then do give me a call on 01908 774323 or click here to ping me an email and let's see how I can help you.

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More about Helen Beaumont ...

Helen brings the personal tax planning experience of the top 20 tax companies to Essendon. Formerly of MacIntyre Hudson (with 45 offices nationwide), Helen worked at Chancery for more than 10 years before joining Essendon as the personal tax specialist.

Tax Planning can make a considerable difference to your tax liability. Helen has specialist knowledge and experience in tax planning and uses every opportunity to minimise your tax bill is utilised. By analysing your investments, income, profit and expenditures, Helen will provide strategic tax planning expertise that could offer significant savings, whilst delivering clear, honest advice and guidance.

When Helen is not at Essendon she spends time with her young son and likes going on long walks with the family dog.

40% Of Small Businesses Are Resistant To Making Tax Digital

It's mandatory from April 2019 ...