With less than a year to go until the rollout of Making Tax Digital quarterly reporting for unincorporated businesses, there are still a raft of unanswered questions about testing and software provision, not to mention the readiness and ability of HMRC to support such a radical overhaul of the tax system. Sara White and Calum Fuller report
The move to quarterly reporting via the Making Tax Digital system for all taxpayers and businesses was first outlined in Budget 2015. Since then, it has come in for considerable criticism over the implementation costs and administrative burden for companies and individuals, despite HMRC’s claims it favours a ‘light touch’ approach.
The rushed rollout has been slated by MPs and the tax and accounting professions. In January, a 50-page report by the Treasury Committee, chaired by Andrew Tyrie MP, called for a delay in the project’s implementation until at least 2019/20 but this was rebuffed. At the Budget in March, the Chancellor Philip Hammond offered a modicum of respite with a one-year delay to quarterly reporting until April 2019 for sole traders, landlords and the self employed operating below the VAT threshold. This still leaves taxpayers and agents with many unanswered questions.
