After the Brexit delay, the six Making Tax Digital consultation documents emerged on 15 August. The focus is naturally on small businesses and landlords, who will be required to buy accounting software to upload data to HMRC on a quarterly basis. There’s a very modest exemption for those with income below £10,000 and a one-year deferral for an as yet undetermined group.

What is completely clear, though, is that a great many smaller businesses will face extra costs, as they pay for new or enhanced software. These will be annual costs, not transitional costs. Inevitably accounting software providers will charge new users and increase costs to existing users to cover the new features.