Treasury Committee chairman Andrew Tyrie has written to the financial secretary to the treasury, Jane Ellison, requesting further detail on HMRC’s claim that the Making Tax Digital programme will cost only £280 per UK company to set up.
During the committee’s recent inquiry into the project, the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said the true cost would be significantly higher – as much as £2,770 per business per year.
Given this gap in estimates, Tyrie (quite rightly) is calling for clarification from both HMRC and the FSB. Tyrie has also written to FSB chairman Mike Cherry asking for the details behind that figure.
Tyrie is quoted by Computer Weekly:
“The compliance cost estimates are so far apart that at least one of them must be wrong. I have written to both the HM Treasury and the Federation of Small Businesses to ask for detailed supporting methodology for their estimates.I suspect that the FSB figure is closer to the mark, what say you?
If the FSB is right, the effects of Making Tax Digital would be crippling for many small businesses. If the government is right, businesses have something to gain in the longer term and one would expect them to be queueing up to join the pilot.”
Tax does have to be taxing.
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Its the right thing to get some clarification as the gap in estimates is a little large. I would believe the FSB's figure over HMRC's on any day of the week.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Tyrie has proven himself a highly effective chairman of the Treasury Committee and his influence is the best hope for HMRC getting MTD as successful as they possibly can.
ReplyDeleteSeparately, Mr Tyrie's Conservative colleague Dominic Raab MP and the Taxpayers Alliance are calling on HMRC to be fined if they wrongly accuse people of tax avoidance and if they seize money before taxpayers have had a chance to appeal assessments.
Such equitable treatment and a bit of accountability from HMRC would be a step in the right direction, but when HMRC have previously been accused by elected Parliamentarians of misleading the PAC I have little faith any change will happen.
For some reason there appears to be widespread mistrust in our fantastic tax department and I'm not sure why.
Its been said many times before but HMRC are incapable of necessary reform or accountability and the only way it will change is to have a new governance structure (with powers).
ReplyDelete