This week's opinion

By the time you read this we will be within 12 months of the launch of Making Tax Digital (MTD) for unincorporated businesses with turnover above the VAT threshold. The first businesses and agents will also be starting out on the pilot programmes. The next year is going to be critical for the whole future of the MTD project. Readers will know that I am more supportive of the principle of MTD than many in our profession and I hope that by the end of the pilot HMRC will have shown that its ambitious plans can be turned into reality. I am sure some elements will have to be re-thought in the light of experience but that is the nature of pilots. It would be wrong for those who are critical of the MTD initiative to seize on small difficulties to start writing its obituary. Equally it...