This week’s opinion

Not surprisingly the new timetable for Making Tax Digital (MTD) has been a main topic of conversation with colleagues this week. The implications of VAT being first in the firing line are starting to dawn on people. From April 2019 businesses with turnover above the VAT threshold will be within the regime. Some people have suggested that because most VAT-registered businesses already prepare quarterly returns nothing much will change. But in fact the requirement will be for businesses above the threshold to keep records digitally. That seems to involve more than submitting a quarterly return electronically and the position will need to be clarified. This leads to software issues. VAT software tends to be an integral part of accounting systems rather than operate on a standalone basis and in many firms the tax practice has little influence over this. Similarly in tax...