Making Tax Digital is a key part of the government’s plans to make it easier for individuals and businesses to get their tax right.

Every individual and business now has access to their own personalised digital tax account and these are being regularly expanded and improved. HMRC’s ambition is to become one of the most digitally advanced tax administrations in the world, modernising the tax system to make it more effective, more efficient and easier for customers to comply.

Businesses will not now be mandated to use the Making Tax Digital for Business system until April 2019 and then only to meet their VAT obligations. This will apply to businesses who have a turnover above the VAT threshold – the smallest businesses will not be required to use the system, although they can choose to do so voluntarily.

Next steps

The first businesses have already started keeping digital records and providing updates to HMRC as part of a live pilot to test and develop the Making Tax Digital service for income tax and NICs and we will continue to expand this pilot.

The government will re-introduce the legislation to give effect to Making Tax Digital for business that was published in the Finance Bill after the Spring Budget.

We will start to pilot Making Tax Digital for VAT by the end of this year, starting with small-scale, private testing, followed by a wider, live pilot starting in Spring 2018. This will allow for well over a year of testing before any businesses are mandated to use the system. No business will be mandated before 2019.

From April 2019 businesses above the VAT threshold will be mandated to keep their records digitally and provide quarterly updates to HMRC for their VAT.

How we can help

We will work with you to prepare for Making Tax Digital.  As small business owners ourselves, we understand what is required to manage business records digitally.  We’ve spent a great deal of time training and developing the right support services to help small businesses through this period of change.