The chancellor announced in his Autumn Statement that the government will invest £1.3 billion in HMRC's new quarterly reporting tax revolution.
- "Most" businesses, self-employed people and landlords will be required to keep track of their tax affairs digitally and update HMRC "least quarterly" via their digital tax account.
- Free apps, software and support (telephone filing) will be given to who need help using digital technology.
- It is proposed that employees and pensioners will be excluded from the changes, unless they have secondary incomes of more than £10,000 per year.
- Measure phased in from 2018 to 2020.
The government will publish its plans to transform the tax system shortly and will consult on the details in 2016.
Comment
- Quarterly reporting represents a major change for taxpayers
- The use of "most" is interesting.
- HMRC believes that use of cash is decreasing and that via bank feeds sufficient data will be able to be automatically downloaded. At present there is software that will do some of the job, but not all and there is an extra cost for some add in feeds.
