SMEs positive about Making Tax Digital

Latest findings have revealed that one in four decision makers working for SMEs believe that Making Tax Digital (MTD) will have a positive impact on their business.

Of the 1,000+ SMEs questioned as part of the YouGov survey, 26% said that the process to move taxes onto a digital platform would be a good thing for their business over the next five years.

Just 16% believe it would have a negative impact, while 46% said it would make no difference.

Brian Palmer, Tax Policy Expert for AAT, commented, “HMRC believes that when Making Tax Digital has been fully rolled out, it will ultimately make complying with tax return filing obligations easier for small businesses individual taxpayers and even HMRC itself. The launch of MTDfV is merely the first step along the road to HMRC achieving its ambition to completely digitise the UK tax system.

“I believe that the real benefit to business arising from digital accounting will be access to near limitless real-time information at the press of a button. This will empower businesses and tax payer to proactively plan their finances more effectively in the future.”

Worrying, 11% of SMEs affected by MTD felt that they were ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ unprepared for the changes. Fifty-six per cent were ‘fairly’ or ‘extremely prepared’.

Brian Palmer added, “While it’s clearly a concern at this late stage that some small businesses are totally unprepared for the first phase of MTD, there is still some time for them to prepare. The vast majority of those businesses affected by MTD for VAT won’t have to submit their first return until well after the end of the first quarter of the 2019-20 tax year, sometime around the end of July or even early August. This means that there is still the opportunity to sort a digital software provider, or speak with an accountant who can help you get on the right path.”

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