They make me laugh! I know I probably shouldn’t say that when so many people – including me – are frequently frustrated and annoyed by their ineptitude and arrogance, but this morning I had to smile.
You see HMRC has created four fictional case studies to re-introduce
Making Tax Digital (MTD), which as you know has been deferred for larger businesses and companies but will be coming soon for small businesses and individuals.
- Geeta
- the teacher who also does some tuition;
- Richard - the landscape gardener who has just become VAT registered;
- Helen – retired; and
- Dave and his wife - who are directors of a small plumbing company
Geeta uses an App on her smartphone for record keeping.
Richard was using an agent but then moves to a digital tax account.
Helen uses a Personal Tax Account.
Dave uses an App to provide information to his accountant.
So Apps are very popular! HMRC assumes that most people will want to do their own record keeping and that small businesses like Geeta and Richard will no longer use accountants or book keepers. I very much doubt that, which is what made me smile.
You see we have an extremely complicated tax system, even HMRC struggle to calculate your tax correctly!
The way that allowances are applied for dividends, allowances, savings and other items all impact on each other.
Many tax
payers will be working on their 2016/17 returns (to 5th April 2017 due by 31st January 2018) over the coming months and find that they can’t use the HMRC software because it doesn’t work properly. Yes, you heard me correctly….HMRC’s software doesn’t work properly!
Rob Ellis, CEO of BTCSoftware, said recently “I can’t remember a year when there have been so many exclusions from filing SA tax returns online. For the 2016/17 tax returns 16 new examples have been added to the online filing exclusions list, which is now in version 4; there is a version 5 of this list under construction”.
I am sure Geeta and Richard will be working through them soon!
You
couldn’t make it up.
To your success
Noel Guilford
Noel Guilford is the principal of Guilford Accounting a small business accountancy practice specialising in advising owner-managed businesses on current accounting, finance, and tax matters. You can reach him via email at noel@guilfordaccounting.co.uk or by phone
at 01244 660866. He is the author of the 'Figure it out - an entrepreneurs guide to understanding your business numbers' which you can obtain by visiting http://guilfordaccounting.co.uk. His latest book, How to Build a Successful Business' will be published in 2017