the advisor
Hung, badly drawn and quartered
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efore I start the old scare stories,
WHAT DID THE TAXPAYERS let me be clear on where we stand with BEING SURVEYED THINK? Making Tax Digital (MTD). People’s judgements must have been biased by the By April 2024, MTD will require selfquestions. It’s no good asking how difficult your tax employed people earning above £10,000 a year to send life will be if the benefits aren’t clear. HMRC quarterly updates. In reality, if you are already using software and There will then be a Final Declaration using MTDapps to deal with your tax returns, like so many of my compatible software. This replaces the current system, clients already are, then your transition to making which requires self-employed people to submit an tax digital was always going to be an easy one! This is Gary Jacobs annual self-assessment using the HMRC portal, in most of course thanks to our whizzy new Eazitax software cases accessed for them by an accountant. -sorry for the plug, but we invested heavily to develop Gary Jacobs This, however, is the latest accountancy industry it, and to make sure it’s backed up by good oldruns Eazitax, an news, hot off the accountancy professional press. fashioned accountants who then trained even our accountancy firm HMRC has commissioned research showing the most technology-averse drivers, knowing that this massive task ahead to convince the self-employed of the specialising in was coming. benefits of MTD. Both the system and the software has the taxi and private The tech whizz clients who already use software come under intense scrutiny. hire business were also the ones who wouldn’t really see or With less than two years to go to the planned start understand further benefits of MTD. In reality, date of April 6 2024, HMRC is yet to tell accountants eazitax.co.uk nothing changes, except the fact that there are how they are going to market this to you, the public. quarterly returns instead of yearly. If you are However, there have been some hints: supplying the information weekly or monthly already, HMRC commissioned a company to survey more than it’s the accountant who must get their act together. 2,000 self-employed people who will be directly affected by MTD. The research showed that taxpayers have a QUARTERLY RETURNS? low awareness of MTD. They explained the basis of it in NOW I’M WORRIED. the following way: It affects self-employed people with a turnover above £10,000, who The survey did ask whether submitting quarterly returns would would have to follow the MTD rules from April 6, 2023. reduce once-a-year tax problems, (knowing that MTD is about The only way to do this is through specialist, compliant software, quarterly submissions). which can keep digital records of income and expenses. Most taxpayers surveyed saw this as a negative. We all know The software will compulsorily keep digital records only, and what a bind record-keeping is for normal people. Many people fear share tax data and information to HMRC. It will also be able to that they will simply not be able to keep up. Even the tech whizzes receive information from HMRC. couldn’t see any further benefits to MTD. Tax payers will have to use either just one The truth is that people will need us software package, or a number of digitally even more for help and advice, but I for one linked ones. There can be no offline transfer of want clients to come to me to feel the love, data such as weekly sheets or spreadsheets, not the fear… Also I’m not sure how well between the likes of you and me. HMRC’s support lines will cope with the There’s something very weird about this onslaught. – as this is not what we have been already SO HMRC, WHAT ARE YOU told will be the actual rollout. Either we as GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? accountants have not understood it properly I am hoping that HMRC will be offering or HMRC is being unclear. clear and easy to understand information. At present, the accountancy profession’s Maybe help with accessing software for understanding of MTD is: those that cannot afford to buy it? A soft n It’s being rolled out in 2024, not 2023. policing of the early years? I hope so. But n You will be asked to keep a record of history has not been kind to these types of income and expenses, but it can be on big tax simplification schemes. spreadsheets, apps, or software. In conclusion, although change may not n We, as accountants, can transfer it for you, always be welcome, in theory MTD should from whatever bag of nightmares that you make the tax process easier. Accountants deliver to us. like us should help our clients to share the The data does not have to kept in specialist journey and embrace software – and 2024 is MTD software initially, even if it ends up there racing toward us. (with, of course, the help of your accountant).
“The truth is that people will need us even more for help and advice, but I for one want clients to come to me to feel the love, not the fear… Also I’m not sure how well HMRC’s support lines will cope with the onslaught....”
JUNE 2022
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