Making Tax Digital – the next steps

On 21 July, the Treasury published a report, Building a trusted, modern tax administration system, which sets out the Government’s vision of what they wish to achieve in the next ten years. The vision comprises three elements – policy, systems and law and practice. The ‘policy’ vision means a progressive extension of HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) work, the ‘systems’ vision means exploring the appropriate timing and frequency for the payment of the different taxes and the technology infrastructure needed to support this, and the ‘law and practice’ vision means reform of the tax administration framework itself.

Extension of MTD

HMRC’s MTD programme is currently in the initial roll-out phase for VAT. Since April 2019, MTD for VAT (MTDfV) is mandatory for most VAT-registered traders whose VAT-taxable turnover is above the VAT registration threshold of £85,000. As a result of a recent Government announcement, the next phase will be to extend the scope of MTD to the VAT registered with turnover below £85,000 from April 2022 and then to introduce MTD for Income Tax for the self-employed and unincorporated landlords from April 2023.

MTD for VAT

MTDfV is compulsory for VAT-registered traders whose taxable turnover is above the VAT registration threshold of £85,000. Traders within its scope must maintain digital VAT records and file digital returns using MTD-compliant software. However, the requirement for digital links to be in place between all parts of process has been delayed by one year as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and will now apply from the first VAT return period starting on or after 1 April 2021. A digital link is simply the transfer or exchange of information between software programmes without the need for manual input of data.

MTD for Income Tax

Businesses and landlords with annual business income chargeable to Income Tax of more than £10,000 will need to comply with MTD for Income Tax from the start of their first accounting period that starts on or after 6 April 2023. This will necessitate the keeping of digital records and the use of software to send in-year updates of their income and expenditure to HMRC, at least quarterly, instead of filing annual post year end information when submitting a self-assessment tax return.

In addition to the four ‘in-year’ updates, at the end of the accounting period the taxpayer will need to finalise their business income by filing a final adjusting submission and making a declaration that it combined with the earlier submissions is correct. The final declaration will replace the current self-assessment return filed after the end of the tax year.

More information about MTD for income tax can be found on the Gov.uk website.

MTD for Corporation Tax

HMRC are to consult later in 2020 on the design of the MTD system for Corporation Tax to ensure that the MTD process evolves to include limited companies.

Help and advice

We can help you prepare for and comply with MTD.