MTD postponed for two more years.

The intention to launch the multibillion-pound programme, called «Making tax digital», was first announced by George Osborne in the spring budget of 2015. In the most significant change in the programme, anyone with annual income of more than £10,000 would have to keep accounting records digitally and then file quarterly updates to HMRC using new software, instead of the single annual update they do at present. HMRC believed this would make people declare their income more accurately and pay tax more frequently, vastly reducing the £32 billion that the department claims is underpaid in tax each year, 5.1 per cent of the country’s annual tax bill. However, in September last year, it was announced that the deadline for its introduction would be postponed for 12 months from April 2023 to 2024 because IT systems were not ready.

Then on Wednesday afternoon, the official departmental page for the programme was changed. This update was removed within minutes,and extended to 6th April 2026, with an HMRC source admitting that an official had jumped the gun by misreading the embargo of the announcement. An HMRC spokeswoman apologised for details on the government website being «mistakenly changed». She would not comment on the timing of any announcement.

She referred The Times to comments by Jim Harra, chief executive of HMRC, to the House of Commons public accounts committee last month, in which he said the 2024 deadline was «under review» because it was «quite pressured, both internally on HMRC being ready, but also the external readiness of software houses and small businesses».

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