Is HMRC bringing down the safety curtain against making tax digital for income tax?
Is HMRC bringing down the safety curtain against making tax digital for income tax? Whilst there is no official announcement yet. We need to be prepared.
*Cue harpist and wobbly dream/nightmare sequence effect… *
Way, way back, HMRC and the Treasury decided to launch a campaign for making tax digital for all your tax records.
Fascinating stuff!
Remember that? No?
Never mind, that’s why you read this isn’t it?!
Anyway, Now, we’ve already seen that for those who need to charge VAT, they have to account for it quarterly, online.
Still with me? Here’s the REALLY INTERESTING part…
You see, the same was planned for self-assessment in terms of self-employment and rental income.
The final date we had was it was DEFINITELY going to go live from April, 2024.
However…hold the phones people… it seems like that might have changed.
Somebody inadvertently put a notice up on the HMRC website saying there’s been a delay until April, 2026.
Butter fingers!
It was taken down very quickly, but not before a few people (including yours truly) saw it and some (not me yet) started to post about it on LinkedIn.
Indeed, The Times did an article on it online at 8:05 PM yesterday stating that the plans now have been delayed until April, 2026.
“Great, thanks Louise, someone messed up. What does it mean for me?!”
Fair point.
Well, accountants and software companies have been busting a gut to try and get everything prepared to make sure clients can go LIVE on the system with digital records and understand what the Dickens (sneaky Christmas reference there guys) they’re doing from 2024.
Meanwhile, pain the backside apart (for the likes of moi) one might now expect a big sigh of relief from many in the acting and music profession.
Many are still just not ready.
Many do not want to do digital records or simply don’t know how to use software.
It was going to be yet another administrative burden on the self-employed.
Well maybe but…and it’s a BIG BUT…it is only a delay.
So what should you do?
Consider it a dress rehearsal.
You should still consider doing your accounts digitally NOW.
Take advantage of the breathing space but do still consider getting things up and running, whether using software or workable spreadsheets to get used to the fact that we will be going live with this.
We don’t KNOW when but it WILL happen.
As I scrawl, there’s no official press release that this is definitely going to happen.
It was only the joyfulness of somebody’s errant post on the HMRC website that kicked this off.
We are waiting for official confirmation but this is just a heads-up to say, “Yes, it might be put on hold or it’s going to be put on hold.” but don’t stop your preparations.
Does the computer still say, “No?”
No, it says “Soon”.