HMRC’s CEO has announced that the MTD process for individuals is slowing down to free up resources for work on Brexit. How might this affect you?
No change, almost. According to HMRC’s CEO, the go-slow “means halting progress on simple assessment and real time tax code changes” . He added that this doesn’t mean no changes at all. Anything that frees resources for other work, namely Brexit, will go ahead, but no details of what this might involve were given.
New. Simple assessments were supposed to play a big part in Making Tax Digital (MTD), and HMRC’s initial claim was that it would be a “New way of collecting tax that will make life easier for millions of customers” within self-assessment. However, so far HMRC has only used them sparingly and so you’re unlikely to notice any change because of the go-slow. In practice, this probably means that if you’re currently within self-assessment you’ll remain in it for a while longer.
What about businesses? MTD for VAT is still on course for April 2019. And while HMRC admits that the introduction of a single online account for businesses will be delayed, there’s no suggestion that the April 2020 date for MTD for business will be put back… watch this space!