HMRC’s £10,000 threshold for use of Making Tax Digital has been excoriated by members of the House of Lords economic affairs committee, who branded the proposal ‘ridiculous’

HMRC’s timetable for user testing for Making Tax Digital is rushed, while the level of communication between software developers and HMRC is inadequate and there is not enough detailed specifications about the IT requirements for the rollout, leading software company chiefs told Lords Committee. Sara White reports

HMRC has published the plans for Making Tax Digital, following a series of consultations throughout 2016 however, the tax authority still remains ambiguous. Francis Whitbread, tax partner at Edmund Carr. comments on the absence of software and bypassing accountants' views

Tax experts and software representives have been called  to give evidence before the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill sub-committee on government proposals to roll out Making Tax Digital (MTD) quartery reporting for small businesses and residential landlords from 2018

Making Tax Digital must take account of the needs of small businesses says ACCA head of taxation Chas Roy-Chowdhury 

Despite HMRC launching an eight-month public consultation on its flagship Making Tax Digital proposals requiring a switch to digital financial records and quarterly online updating, a fifth of micro business owners have no knowledge of the plans, according to a survey by online accounting provider FreeAgent

The government’s approach to handling public sector data breaches is ‘inconsistent and dysfunctional’ and it should do more to consolidate an ‘alphabet soup’ of agencies involved in the fight against cybercrime, according to a report from the public accounts committee (PAC)

Quarterly reporting under Making Tax Digital will become mandatory for unincorporated businesses, sole traders, buy-to-let landlords and the self employed from April 2018. We asked CCH tax writer Stephen Relf CTA ACA to delve into the detail and explain the implications from quarterly reporting deadlines to penalties and higher cash basis limits

HMRC plans to start testing the Making Tax Digital reporting system from April with an initial cohort of 100 or so testers in place for the pilot, with ambitious plans to expand the number of testers to the thousands by the autumn, reports Sara White

Yvette Nunn CTA is heartened MPs in the Treasury Committee have added their voice to the profession's concerns around Making Tax Digital and its ambitious timetable for its introduction

Businesses using Making Tax Digital to file with HMRC will be granted a ‘soft landing’ for late filings in the first 12 months of the project’s operation, the tax authority has said

The move to Making Tax Digital is to go ahead with the original timetable for a 2018 start date, despite delays in issuing the original consultation, although the government has still not confirmed whether it will increase the £10,000 exemption threshold