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As readers might imagine, making tax digital (MTD) has cropped up regularly in the Taxation inbox since the postponement announcement just before Christmas. We have a number of articles to come on the subject, starting with Paul Aplin’s on page 8 of this issue. A tax administration system which works effectively for taxpayers, agents and HMRC alike is critical to the success of the economy and I doubt that there will be a more important topic for us to cover over the coming years.
Yet we need to be careful that we don’t overload readers. I think that many in our profession have reached the point where they simply don’t want to engage anymore and will turn over the pages in this, and any other publication, rather than read yet more about MTD. The fact that it has been postponed for a fifth time has led to a feeling that it will never happen or, at the very least, will be postponed again. Why should anybody waste their valuable time reading about something which has no impact on day-to-day business life?
I understand this view, even if I don’t entirely agree with it, and it does lead me to wonder just how much of the magazine we should be devoting to MTD over the next year or so. I sense that the appetite for pieces looking backwards at what has gone wrong, or for speculative pieces about what might happen in the future, is quite limited. Equally I am sure that readers want to be kept up to date with what is happening and be given guidance on what they will need to do. We will try to get this balance right over the coming year but please let us know if we get it wrong. We won’t, however, object if you tell us that we are getting it right.
If you do one thing…
Are you up to speed with the new VAT penalties regime? If not, start with HMRC’s ‘VAT penalties and interest’ page (tinyurl.com/hmrcvatandpens).
