In another setback for the flagship HMRC project it was announced today that a further delay will be added before everyone can submit income and tax updates digitally.
We previously reported that the project had been omitted from this year's updated Finance Bill to the welcome relief of accountants and taxpayers in tandem as it was uncovered that the proposal would require the filing of up to five tax returns in a single tax year.
A new timetable states the following:
- Businesses with turnover of over £85,000 (the current VAT threshold) will be the only ones to be required to use the system and even then it will be for VAT filing only and this is from April 2019 - giving taxpayers an extra year to prepare.
- Businesses with turnover of over £85,000 (the current VAT threshold) then will have until at least 2020 before HMRC will require their quarterly updates online - along with an annual summary - for other types of tax.
- For others not meeting the above criteria it will be completely voluntary.
The 'Making Tax Digital' project was started by HMRC in 2015. It was given the go-ahead by assessing its ability to help reduce the £8 billion tax gap caused in part by tax errors.
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