Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a key part of the government’s plans to revolutionise the UK tax system and make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right and keep on top of their affairs. This means the end of the annual tax return for millions from Apr 2018.

Four objectives of Making Tax Digital

Better use of information

Businesses will not have to provide HMRC with the information that it already has, or that it is able to get from elsewhere – for instance from employers, banks, building societies and other government departments.
Digital tax accounts for all will mean that customers can see the information that HMRC holds and be able to check at any time that their details are complete and correct.

Tax in real time

HMRC will collect and process information affecting tax as close to real time as possible, to help prevent errors and stop tax due or repayments owed building up.

A single financial account

By 2020, customers will be able to see a comprehensive financial picture in their digital account, just like they can with online banking

Interacting digitally with customers

Businesses will be able to interact with HMRC digitally and at a time to suit them.
Digital record keeping software will be linked directly to HMRC systems, allowing businesses to send and receive information directly from their software.

Timeline for Making Tax Digital
– the Go Live phase

Apr 2018 – Sole traders above VAT will go digital
Apr 2019 – Sole traders below VAT threshold will go digital
Apr 2019 – MTD will also be applied to VAT submissions
Apr 2020 – MTD will extended to Corporation Tax

Late Submission penalties

HMRC will impose penalties on those who fail to submit their information on time when it has become an obligation to submit the information under MTD.
The final legislations as to how the late submission penalty system would work, will be issued later on this year by HMRC.

How can we help?

We can help businesses or individual at any stage of moving to Making Tax Digital.
This could be from:

  • assessing the status of their business for moving to MTD
  • starting from the beginning by setting up right tools and software
  • by managing the day to day responsibilities to ensure they meet their quarterly and yearly obligations under MTD; or
  • anything that is necessary to help them meet their obligation under MTD