The government has confirmed that it will publish its response to the initial Making Tax Digital consultations in January 2017 with the first quarterly reporting period for unincorporated businesses and buy-to-let landlords set to kick in from 2018
In a brief paragraph, the document confirmed that the government plans to release its response to the wide-reaching Making Tax Digital consultations early in the new year. At that time, it will set out the provisions for implementation of the much criticised plans for quarterly reporting for landlords and sole trades, as well as unincorporated businesses, from April 2018.
This gives HMRC officials a minimum of two months to review the feedback, following the 7 November closing date for responses.
HMRC received over 3,000 responses to the consultation process.
Over the summer, HMRC released six individual consultations ranging from micro businesses to landlords and sole traders released but has still not released the most anticipated consultation document on quarterly reporting plans for incorporated businesses.
The speed of the implementation has been heavily criticised by the tax profession, with the tight timeframe for introduction repeatedly raised as a major concern.