The Association of Taxation Technicians has called upon HMRC to postpone the introduction of quarterly digital reporting by at least a year.
For why?
Apart from the fact it will quite clearly be a dog's dinner that costs companies a large amount of money and time when trying to comply with the State's demands for data, the five consultations planned for the project have been postponed because of the EU referendum.
As such the results of the consultations will all land on HMRC's desk all in one go.
What chance will HMRC have of digesting and acting on the results of the consultations?
That being said, does anyone think that HMRC has the slightest intention of listening to what taxpayers think about this?
Anyhoo, here is the text of the
ATT press release:
Press release: HMRC urged to postpone quarterly digital reporting by at least a year
The
Association of Taxation Technicians (ATT) is calling on HMRC to
postpone the introduction of quarterly digital reporting by at least a
year after the announcement of a delay to the consultation process
because of the EU referendum.
The appeal by ATT is after the announcement this week that the five expected consultation documents
on Making Tax Digital will now be postponed until after the EU
referendum. The first of these consultations was initially expected in
early April. The ATT has consistently raised concerns that the existing
timetable is overly-ambitious.
This delay is likely to mean that all
five consultations will be issued in one go with simultaneous
deadlines, rather than in stages, in order to maintain HMRC’s ability to
launch a public testing phase by April 2017. This will restrict the
time that interested parties will have to fully respond to each one in
as much detail as will be required for a project with such a fundamental
impact on the tax system.
Yvette Nunn, Co-Chair of ATT’s Technical Steering Group, said:
“The Making Tax Digital Project
represents the biggest change to the way taxpayers will engage with HMRC
since the introduction of PAYE in 1945 and, according to a recently
conducted survey, will require around 82 per cent of
self-employed individuals to change the way they currently keep business
records.
Furthermore, with £1.3 billion of taxpayers’ money having been
approved for spending on this project, it is imperative
that it is handled correctly as the risk of embarrassment to both HMRC
and the Government if this goes wrong is huge.
“If we assume that all consultation responses will need to be
submitted by say, the end of September to keep to the timetable of an
April 2017 public testing phase, then we believe that it will be
impossible for HMRC to adequately consider the views and constructive
points raised in each consultation in just this six month timeframe.
This will have a detrimental impact on the eventual design of the
digital system and will impact on HMRC’s ability to have the whole
digital system ready to use, not to mention how it will have time to
build the add-on systems needed for those who will need assistance to
comply and those who are digitally excluded.
“Whilst we can understand the
decision by Ministers to delay the issue of the consultations until
after the EU referendum, we strongly believe that HMRC needs to
recognize the impact of this delay by revising the timetable for
implementation by at least one year. This would then allow the
consultations to be released in phases, with staggered submission
deadlines, to allow more consideration of all of the issues.
“Rushing ahead with this project
without allowing adequate time for the consultation and testing phases
could put at risk the many potential benefits for taxpayers and HMRC
which greater digital working can bring. That would be a tremendous
mistake and in a worst case scenario could result in a system that was
not fit for purpose.”
Tax does have to be taxing.
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