MTD – An Update

Annie Lee (September 2016) and Paul Windsor (February 2017) have written articles here regarding the HMRC drive towards regular digital reporting for taxpayers.

The Spring Budget earlier this year introduced changes to the proposed system and clarified who would be required to file quarterly information with HMRC.

It was confirmed that self-employed individuals and landlords with the gross annual trunover of below £10,000 would be exempt. All other self employed individuals and landlords would be required to digitally report every three months.

The quarterly reporting would commence on 6 April 2018 with those having turnovers of over £85,000 per annum joining first.

It was helpful to finally receive clarification and a clear picture as to how MTD would work.

This was, however, before the June election was announced! In a rush to pass legislation before the election break the Finance Bill was trimmed to remove the more controversial sections. MTD was one of the sections removed and there is no automatic method of this being included in the next Finance Bill.

As it stands there is likely to be a delay in implementation of the scheme for at least 12 months. The position is, once again, unclear.

Watch this space for further updates.