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».

www.sba.tax

Comments

Cloud Bookkeeping

US FED rate rise.

The US Federal Reserve officials have indicated that they plan to resume increasing interest rates to control inflation in the world's biggest economy. During the June meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee reached a consensus to keep interest rates stable for the time being to evaluate whether further tightening of policy would be necessary. However, the majority of the committee anticipates that additional rate increases will be required in the future. The minutes of the meeting have recently been made public. According to the minutes, most participants believed maintaining the federal funds rate at 5 to 5.25 per cent was appropriate or acceptable, despite some individuals wanting to raise the acceleration due to slow progress in cooling inflation. Although Fed forecasts predicted a mild recession starting later in the year, policymakers faced challenges in interpreting data that showed a tight job market and only slight improvements in inflation. Additionally, officials gr...

EU business slide.

S&P Global’s flash eurozone composite purchasing managers’ index, a key gauge of business conditions for the manufacturing and services sector, fell 1 point to 47.1, figures showed yesterday. That is its lowest level since November 2020 and the fourth consecutive month below the crucial 50 mark separating growth from contraction. One of the few bright spots in the survey was that companies in all sectors reported a slight easing of cost pressures, price growth and supply chain constraints. However, prices charged for goods and services still rose at the sixth fastest rate since such data started in 2002. Jobs growth increased marginally from October but remained low compared with the past 18 months. Following a few months of falling price pressure in manufacturing and services, the October print shows an overall stabilisation said Jens Eisenschmidt, chief European economist at Morgan Stanley. However, German businesses, at the hub of Europe’s energy crisis, reported that manu...

Tariffs on UK electric cars.

The European Commission has confirmed that it will continue with its plan to impose tariffs on electric cars exported between the UK and EU starting next year. This is due to the "rules of origin" requirement that mandates EVs traded across the English Channel to have 60% of their battery and 45% of their parts sourced from the EU or UK or face a 10% tariff. A senior Commission official, Richard Szostak, recently informed parliamentarians from the UK and EU that the bloc's battery investment has significantly declined, making the tariffs necessary to encourage domestic production. In 2022, the EU's share of global investment in battery production shrank from 41% to only 2% after the US offered substantial subsidies through its Inflation Reduction Act. Starting in 2024, car manufacturers in the UK will need to have 22% of their sales come from zero-emission vehicles, which means they may need to import EVs from the continent to meet this requirement. If EU carmakers ...

Search This Blog