This week’s opinion

The announcement that by 2020 most businesses sole traders and landlords will have to make quarterly “returns” to HMRC has led to much discussion within the tax community. The majority view seems to be that this will increase workloads though not fees fourfold. On the other hand some are wondering what all the fuss is about pointing out that most businesses seem to cope with quarterly VAT returns and question why this should be any different. I suppose it all depends on what “update HMRC at least [my emphasis] quarterly via their digital tax account” means in practice. If it implies full accounts and computations every three months then we might as well all bring forward our retirement plans. But if as I hope and suspect it means something much less onerous – perhaps simple quarterly statements of cash in and out –...