Making Tax Digital

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

I think it should largely eliminate the 31 Jan rush for the simpler end of the market (and hence most "small" accountants). There shouldn't be much in the way of fancy year end adjustments, so the annual thing should largely be the sum of the 4 quarterly submissions. If the data's already been collected to deal with those, the annual one should be a breeze (famous last words).

Inevitably the more complex ones will be...more complex, but that shouldn't impact many of us on this forum, accountants or business owners.

Yes, famous last words Chris. I'm jaded at present after my busiest January for about a decade, following a move into new business sectors.

By and large most PSC users, especially with a decent accountant, are whipped into shape, be it Freeagent, excel or whatever. In our office, with the PSC portfolio, one of the largest bottle necks, if not the largest, is getting a simple year end clarification from people about things like debtors/wip, home working costs - just the things that have to go on the fifth submission.

Outside the organised world of PSCs there is, however, still a huge rump of disorganised and unprepared sole traders below the vat threshold, where January becomes a frantic panic. Depending on the MTD threshold, at best it will be a uphill battle to install discipline, at worst the January rush will still be there. Premium pricing calls...

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

4 small rushes?

5 small rushes I suspect

[Maslins]

I think it should largely eliminate the 31 Jan rush for the simpler end of the market (and hence most "small" accountants). There shouldn't be much in the way of fancy year end adjustments, so the annual thing should largely be the sum of the 4 quarterly submissions. If the data's already been collected to deal with those, the annual one should be a breeze (famous last words).

Inevitably the more complex ones will be...more complex, but that shouldn't impact many of us on this forum, accountants or business owners.

[Fred Bloggs]

As it's four returns of income and expense, followed by a post year end adjustment by 31 January, I suspect the 31 January rush will still be there.

As the move to cloud systems like FA accelerates, driven more and more by changes such as this and initiated both by accountants and clients then the data is already there (or should be) so the mad scramble to collect, collate, query and clarify all those data points should in time largely disappear? The client takes a lot of the responsibility because rather than sending monthly spreadsheet reports to the accountant who then looks after the data, the data is entered directly into the cloud software. Naturally as with all IT systems, the GIGO principle still prevails.

[northernladuk]

As it's four returns of income and expense, followed by a post year end adjustment by 31 January, I suspect the 31 January rush will still be there.

4 small rushes?

[Jessica@WhiteFieldTax]

Four tax returns a year to be submitted electronically. What a boost to FreeAgent and the like, that is going to be. And it will end the January 31st deadline panic at accountancy offices too.

As it's four returns of income and expense, followed by a post year end adjustment by 31 January, I suspect the 31 January rush will still be there.

[Maslins]

I do effectively 12 electronic tax returns a year with PAYE. I never understand why they ask me to enter the same information they already have on the SA.

That doesn't include dividends of course, but if it's all coming from the same company why not roll that into the PAYE reporting? Wouldn't be hard, and then for most of us we wouldn't need to do an additional tax return at all.

Or is that too sensible?

That's where it's all drifting, just given the huge numbers of people/entities involved and the complexity of the tax system, it's going to take years/decades rather than months.

It's basically what Gideon was talking about with the planned changes to personal tax returns over the coming years. Theory is you'll login to a portal, it'll already have your salary(/ies) as it knows them from RTI submissions, potentially interest received as banks will have made that data available, dividends too if they get to a situation where dividends are reported when they're paid, any personal pension contributions/gift aid donations may also be linked in, etc etc. You'll end up just skimming down it already pre completed then clicking submit, or flagging any potential errors.

[SueEllen]

I do effectively 12 electronic tax returns a year with PAYE. I never understand why they ask me to enter the same information they already have on the SA.

That doesn't include dividends of course, but if it's all coming from the same company why not roll that into the PAYE reporting? Wouldn't be hard, and then for most of us we wouldn't need to do an additional tax return at all.

Or is that too sensible?

Yes.

Also not everyone has one source for their income stream. So if you are a higher rate tax payer say for the NHS but also do private work then you have two income streams.

[VectraMan]

I do effectively 12 electronic tax returns a year with PAYE. I never understand why they ask me to enter the same information they already have on the SA.

That doesn't include dividends of course, but if it's all coming from the same company why not roll that into the PAYE reporting? Wouldn't be hard, and then for most of us we wouldn't need to do an additional tax return at all.

Or is that too sensible?

[Darren at Fox-Bartfield]

MTD

Starts for some in 2018 but most affected will be 2019....Link

[Invisiblehand]

When does it start?

[Fred Bloggs]

Four tax returns a year to be submitted electronically. What a boost to FreeAgent and the like, that is going to be. And it will end the January 31st deadline panic at accountancy offices too.