Key changes to Making Tax Digital scheme announced

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HMRC has announced its revised plans for its Making Tax Digital scheme affecting businesses – and it seems to have listened to common sense.

MTD, as originally announced, came in for a barrage of criticism from accountants, tax experts, businesses, and politicians from all sides. It would have seen everyone turning over more than £10,000 forced to keep digital records and file quarterly returns, beginning next April.

The new announcement sees changes to which businesses are affected, when, and even which taxes it relates to. The key points of the revised scheme are:

  • MTD will only apply to VAT until at least 2020
  • Businesses below the VAT threshold (currently £85,000) will be able to opt-in if they want but it won’t be compulsory – yet

The scheme will begin in April 2019. From that date, businesses over the annual registration threshold will have to keep digital records for VAT purposes, providing their VAT information to HMRC through MTD software.

MTD for VAT will be piloted using small-scale private testing towards the end of this year, with a larger live pilot next spring.

The Treasury says businesses with a turnover below the VAT threshold can choose to use MTD, and opt in for other taxes, ‘benefitting from a streamlined, digital experience’. It is not clear when this will be from.

It also says it will not extend MTD to other taxes until the scheme has been shown to be working well, or April 2020 at the earliest.

In my previous blogs on MTD, while arguing against the timescale and requirements, I pointed out that having up-to-date information really benefits businesses and day-to-day decision making.

So while many business owners will be happy to have dodged a bullet for now under these revised MTD rollout plans, the Treasury remains committed to a digital tax future. As it says, millions of businesses are already banking, paying bills, and interacting online. Digitising routine business tasks such as record keeping is the next step and is one many businesses have already taken.

For help and advice on record keeping, and how to get the most out of your accounts, contact us here.

3 golden rules for success in business

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Being in business is a struggle at times. Read the stories of any successful business man or woman, and none of them will have had a smooth ride to the top.

It is very easy to get caught up in the day-to-day battles. This is especially true in a sole trader/owner-manager business. You often have no-one to tell you whether something is good or bad, someone to add perspective to a situation.

In the early days of my business a very wise friend gave me some advice. He said that when you are working by yourself it is easy to have huge swings of emotion – one day it is great, the next you want to give up. Something very small can tip your mood; one small thing can turn a great day into a disaster.

Often you will then look to blame yourself and come up with all the reasons why you are not capable of running a business. In reality it is probably nothing to do with anything you have or have not done.

But you don’t have anyone to tell you that.

These are my three pieces of advice to help smooth your journey through the ups and downs of business:

  1. Never make a decision off the back of a ‘bad day’. If you are having a bad day, step back and make your decisions later with a clear head.
  2. Always watch the tide and not the waves. Business can be rough and the waves can push you up and down but it is not the wave which we need to look out for. The wave will be here one moment and then will go past us. It is the tide that we need to be aware of, washing us out of our depth or up on to dry land.
  3. Always try to make decisions from a position of strength. We often make bad decisions when we are under pressure or forced into a corner. Just because it seems like a way out of a problem does not mean that it is the right way.

At Altus, we support clients by providing that listening ear and sense of perspective. We are at the end of the telephone line for that quick ‘can I just run this past you?’ call, while our Freelance FD services provide a critical friend on a regular, on-going basis.