Making tax digital – unrepresented taxpayers
I have written to Taxation previously about making tax digital (MTD). I am still a member of the ICAEW Tax Faculty Tax Practitioner Committee. I am the oldest member of that committee and have for the past two years been trying to put forward the case for the elderly taxpayers who are going to be caused considerable problems by digitisation.
It is a major concern that HMRC no longer wishes to engage with taxpayers and has decided that all that is needed are computer-based answers to complete tax returns. Records are required to be kept digitally and taxpayers need to choose their own software suppliers.
I recall at a meeting of the ICAEW relating to the introduction of MTD for VAT that I raised the matter of the cost to business of this transition and was informed by the former head of HMRC (who retired last April) that the costs have been estimated by the HMRC team at £250 a year for four quarterly returns. This derisory figure was ridiculed in the room. Now imagine what it is going to cost a small business person or property owner to have to pay for four quarterly returns plus the final actual annual tax return.
It is remarkable how the Treasury team is insulated from the real business world, with many rewarded with gold plated pensions at the end of their working lives. The burdens on the private sector grow constantly.
I refer to two documents that sum up the problem: Andrew Hubbard’s editorial ‘Time for a rethink on the MTD framework’, Taxation, 23 November 2023, and the House of Commons’ Public Accounts Committee damning report Progress with MTD published on the following day (tinyurl.com/hocpacnov23mtd). Nobody was listening then or now.
Robin Summers.
