Making Tax Digital: the death of the tax return?

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a new regulation put in place by HMRC that will revolutionise the UK tax system and ultimately bring an end to the self-assessment.

The aim of Making Tax Digital is to make recording tax easier for tax payers by implementing a fully digitalised tax system.

HMRC are staging the implementation, starting with VAT registered businesses who will need to be fully compliant by 6^th April 2019.

How do I know if I am compliant?

HMRC have released a list of all fully MTD compliant software providers that you can find here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/software-for-sending-income-tax-updates

You will need to make sure that you use one of these digital providers for your accounts software to input your day to bookkeeping and submit your VAT returns through software to HMRC.

 You will no longer be able to use HMRC’s online VAT filing service through your business tax account.

Who will be effected by these changes?

The changes will apply to most businesses, Self-employed professionals and landlords.

HMRC will be rolling out the implementation with the view to being fully digitalised tax system by 2020. 

The death of the tax return?

Once MTD is in full swing, there will be no need to file a Self-assessment, instead, quarterly returns will need to be submitted, along with an annual submission for each trade to confirm the annual figures and then finally a final declaration to confirm all income for the tax year, all of which will need to be filed using MTD compliant software.

If you are unsure what measures your company needs to take to be MTD compliant, or want to check if you are already compliant, then contact us for a MTD overview of your business, 01279 812277 – Abby@wilsonaccountingservices.com