Many businesses ill-equipped as MTD-day for VAT nears

As many as 880 000 VAT-registered businesses in the UK may be unprepared for new digital taxation rules that come into force from April next year.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that in March 2018 there were 2 669 440 VAT-registered businesses in the UK (tinyurl.com/yda4nbka). But RSM research by YouGov suggests that up to one-third of them are unprepared for Making Tax Digital for VAT.

John Forth VAT partner at RSM said: ‘MTD is one of the biggest shake-ups in tax administration for over 20 years. But with just six months to go before the rules come into force there’s a worrying number of VAT-registered business that are completely unaware of the changes.’

He said these businesses would have to ‘make the next six months count to ensure that their software systems and people are all ready for the change’.