the advisor
Taxing times in the post-pandemic world
W
e have been talking about
Act 1998 first came into force, and driver details were harvested by HMRC. Even then the sense of fear and confusion was palpable, but at that time we were predominantly a ‘cash’ business, and drivers were a-plenty. Nowadays, the industry is populated by savvy operators unafraid of tech and plenty of savvy drivers that are more interested in how to reduce their tax liability in smart ways than whether to avoid doing a tax return. However, post-pandemic the timing could not have been worse, with many drivers on the missing list or delivering anything but passengers. The loss of even 20% of untaxed drivers would be felt more acutely.
the implementation of HMRC’s Making Tax Digital since 2017, but post-pandemic finally we have a date of 2023 for its implementation. Tax returns are mainly filed online anyway, but with the onset of the need for digital bookkeeping, which will be needed for the change from once-a-year to quarterly tax returns, many Gary Jacobs accountants feel that they will no longer be able to service their clients. That’s you, folks. Gary Jacobs Some believe that MTD is really about the runs Eaziserv, an hidden economy. Everyone already has a accountancy firm personal tax account (PTA) with HMRC that lists specialising in everything that is known about them. If you want the taxi and private to see yours, your accountant can show you how MORE SEISS PROBLEMS hire business to access it. All of our clients are ‘encouraged’ I have mentioned many times before that much to get it as soon as they join us, as the more eaziserv.co.uk of the Covid regulation was of course enacted you know the better we work. Once the books as an emergency and so we should be gentle and records are harvested monthly and shown with Whitehall. However, the list of problems and quarterly, there will be chance no of ‘manipulating’ the figures. issues continues to grow and many people including myself are There are some positive aspects to this. The good thing for starting to lose our patience. us number-crunchers is that it will weed out accountants with Inflated figures have been received on tax returns by those poor systems that don’t service the client. We will have the who have received self-employed income support grants. It chance to collaborate more with our clients and make better seems the gremlins are back in the system. decisions with you and for you. There is a bug in HMRC’s self-assessment application However, there is a quiet revolution happening among programming interface (API) that is corrupting figures entered accountants who feel that you guys won’t be able to cope on 2020-21 returns for SEISS grants. There have been reports with feeding us accountants your information within this in the accountants’ media platform Accountingweb of: new timeframe. Many also believe there may well be a mass u Million-pound SEISS claims appearing in tax returns, and retirement of traditional accountants unable to keep up with reports of ‘crazy’ figures being sent to accountants by technology. HMRC. There are a lot of new online apps that are offering easy u Grants being deducted or added because the system ways to do your tax return, but my experience is that people showed them as not paid or overpaid. can be trained to adopt new ways of working like ‘data capture’ An HMRC spokesperson confirmed: “We are aware of a (a posh way of saying photograph your invoices and store problem with the way that SEISS grants received in the 2020them), but they still need a real accountant either on the end 21 tax year are being presented on the individual income API. of a phone line, face to face, or at worst at the end of a piece of Figures are being presented in pence rather than pounds. This chat software instead of a ‘Bot’. This fine line between the old is impacting individuals who use commercial software. We and the new is what I believe will keep us hybrid accountants apologise for the inconvenience this is causing.” in the game both for MTD and the impending introduction of I believe this is the first tranche of a lot of problems Conditionality. emanating from software issues and staff shortages and CONDITIONALITY disruptions within HMRC. So beware, speak to your accountant This is the obligation of drivers to prove they are tax payers and check your returns. before receiving or renewing their license. I participated in the n Gary Jacobs is a director of Eazitax an industry consultation as far back as 2019, and knew it was on the cards, specialist accountancy service. If you have any problems but in terms of its publicity, it fell through the cracks between with the current issues discussed Gary can be contacted private hire and accountancy. at Eazitax.co.uk or via LinkedIn I actually remember when the Private Hire Vehicles (London)
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