The government should delay the launch of ‘making tax digital’ until 2020 and make the scheme optional for many small businesses and self-employed people, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill sub-committee has recommended in a new report.
The government should delay the launch of ‘making tax digital’ until 2020 and make the scheme optional for many small businesses and self-employed people, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill sub-committee has recommended in a new report. The report suggests the following modifications to the policy:
revise and improve the assessment of making tax digital’s benefits and costs, as the government’s assertion that the scheme will initially cost businesses £280 does not reflect the reality;
delay the scheme until 2020 to allow a full pilot, allowing the government to receive valuable feedback from business users;
make digital record-keeping and quarterly reporting optional for businesses with a turnover below the VAT threshold; and
examine whether some kinds of business, such as those with seasonal or highly irregular income, should be outside the scheme.
As Paul Aplin, vice president of the ICAEW, observed in this week’s Tax Journal (page 8), the recommendations echo many of the comments and findings in the earlier report by the House of Commons Treasury Committee. There was ‘much wisdom contained in these two Parliamentary reports’, he wrote.
The government should delay the launch of ‘making tax digital’ until 2020 and make the scheme optional for many small businesses and self-employed people, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill sub-committee has recommended in a new report.
The government should delay the launch of ‘making tax digital’ until 2020 and make the scheme optional for many small businesses and self-employed people, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill sub-committee has recommended in a new report. The report suggests the following modifications to the policy:
revise and improve the assessment of making tax digital’s benefits and costs, as the government’s assertion that the scheme will initially cost businesses £280 does not reflect the reality;
delay the scheme until 2020 to allow a full pilot, allowing the government to receive valuable feedback from business users;
make digital record-keeping and quarterly reporting optional for businesses with a turnover below the VAT threshold; and
examine whether some kinds of business, such as those with seasonal or highly irregular income, should be outside the scheme.
As Paul Aplin, vice president of the ICAEW, observed in this week’s Tax Journal (page 8), the recommendations echo many of the comments and findings in the earlier report by the House of Commons Treasury Committee. There was ‘much wisdom contained in these two Parliamentary reports’, he wrote.
