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The CIOT and ATT have been commendably quick off the market in writing to the new financial secretary to the Treasury Nigel Huddleston, congratulating him on his appointment (tinyurl.com/ciotattfst) but also asking him to announce a full review of the making tax digital (MTD) project in the Autumn Statement. By the time some of you read this we will know whether he had heeded that advice. I very much hope that he does because things have dropped into something of a black hole since the last ministerial MTD announcement almost a year ago.
Digital technology moves so fast these days that it seems extraordinary to me that the government appears still to be committed to an MTD framework which is getting on for ten years old. For comparison, the Apple watch was introduced in the same year as the ‘death of the tax return’ announcement but is already in its ninth generation. In a world where ChatGTP celebrates its first birthday this month, the MTD project in its current form seems increasingly to be heading down a blind alley.
There is no doubt that digital technology does have the power to transform the administration of the tax system to the mutual benefit of taxpayers, agents and HMRC alike. We saw only last week that there has been a threefold increase in the number of people using HMRC’s new app to pay their tax bill. At 100,000 taxpayers this is still only a tiny fraction of the self-assessment population, but it does show that there is a place for digital services within the tax system.
I don’t know whether the new minister will heed the CIOT and ATT’s call. Being new to the job he is perfectly placed to say to HMRC: ‘Time for a rethink.’
If you do one thing...
Read HMRC’s new guidance on digital reporting platforms at IEIM900000 onwards (tinyurl.com/900000).
