This week's opinion

For tax practitioners the new year has, since the introduction of self assessment, meant the 31 January deadline. We can look forward to business as usual at the end of this month but we do not know whether it will be last time we have to gear up for the January rush. The reason for the uncertainty is HMRC’s digital plans. We had hoped that, by now, we would have some detail of how MTD was going to work, but the delay in publishing the consultative documents and then HMRC’s decision to delay commenting on the responses until January has set back the timetable. The pressure on HMRC and the government to think again about how MTD is rolled out is, in my experience, unprecedented and it would be a major betrayal of the whole consultation process if there were not a serious reconsideration of the timetable. 

 

I still believe that HMRC is right to move the tax regime into a digital environment and that ultimately we will end up with a more efficient system than we have now. But a change of this nature will take time and must be done with the support of all of those involved – tax agents, the public and HMRC staff. We need a digital system that will stand the test of time – not a half-hearted compromised system rushed in to meet an arbitrary political deadline. 

 

If you do one thing…

 

Read HMRC’s guidance on the new transactions in land provisions (tinyurl.com/hhl2y58). There is a perception that all these do is bring non-residents into charge, but in fact the new regime applies also to UK resident individuals and companies. The examples starting on page 18 of the guidance are a useful starting point. Although they reflect only HMRC’s view, they show the kind of transactions that may be within the scope of the new charge.

 

Andrew Hubbard