Strong doubts have been raised over the current Making Tax Digital (MTD) timetable.<\/p>\n
HMRC launched its flagship digitisation scheme in 2015-16, intending to move tax systems and records to a modern management platform by 2020.<\/p>\n
The aim was to maximise tax revenue, make sustainable cost savings and improve customer service by modernising systems for VAT, income tax self-assessment and corporation tax.<\/p>\n
HMRC also planned to require business taxpayers to keep and submit quarterly digital tax records.<\/p>\n
The flagship tax digitisation project has, however, been beset by issues and delays. A recent National Audit Office (NAO) paper reported that the scheme is now expected to cost around five times its original budget.<\/p>\n
Delays ‘undermining credibility’ of the programme<\/strong><\/p>\n Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said: “The repeated delays and rephasing of Making Tax Digital have undermined the programme’s credibility and increased its costs.<\/p>\n “They put at risk the support of taxpayers and delivery partners, including those who are essential to the programme succeeding.<\/p>\n “It has made some recent progress on VAT but it has not yet tackled the most complex elements of the programme and significant delivery risks remain.”<\/p>\n HMRC confident on meeting new timelines<\/strong><\/p>\n HMRC chief executive Jim Harra has admitted the Government underestimated the scale and complexity of the project.<\/p>\n Since December 2022, the tax authority said it has been undertaking a series of ‘co-creation’ events involving unnamed stakeholders “with the ambition of resolving the most pressing design issues within the coming months”.<\/p>\n They said they were confident about the prospect of delivering MTD for income tax self-assessment to its new timelines.<\/p>\n Those with incomes above £50,000 will join the programme in 2026 while those in the £30,000 to £50,000 bracket will join in 2027. The Treasury is currently reviewing whether MTD quarterly reporting is appropriate for people with income between £10,000 and £30,000.<\/p>\n However, representatives from the business, tax and accountancy world have expressed severe doubts to MPs about HMRC’s ability to get the project online at its current schedule.<\/p>\n Alison Kerrey, chair of the joint Chartered Institute of Taxation and the and the Association of Taxation Technicians Digitalisation and Agent Services Committee, said: “HMRC and the Government’s execution of this major change to the tax system feels like it is out of control, with spiralling costs, unrealistic timescales, and questionable benefits.”<\/p>\n Need support with business tax? We can help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Strong doubts have been raised over the current Making Tax Digital (MTD) timetable. HMRC launched its flagship digitisation scheme in 2015-16, intending to move tax systems and records to a modern management platform by 2020. The aim was to maximise tax revenue, make sustainable cost savings and improve customer service by modernising systems for VAT, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","blog-left-layout","blog-style-postblock","","blog-alt-odd"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/taxbak.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/taxbak.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/taxbak.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/taxbak.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/taxbak.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1390\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/taxbak.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/taxbak.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/taxbak.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}