by Hart Parry | Sep 12, 2017 | Hart Parry News |
Making Tax Digital for Business: plans delayed The government’s much-publicised plans for Making Tax Digital for Business (MTDfB) have taken a radical new direction, giving businesses longer to get ready for change. MTDfB involves not just mandatory quarterly updates to HMRC, but also makes digital accounting records compulsory. For some unincorporated businesses, including landlords, April 2018 was the proposed start date. There has been much concern about the entire plan, particularly the very rushed timescale. There is now a lengthier period to prepare and initially, MTDfB will be limited just to the VAT regime. New timeline The timeline now proposed makes MTDfB mandatory from April 2019 for businesses with turnover over the VAT threshold (£85,000 at present). They will have to keep digital records, but only for VAT purposes. Such businesses will be able to provide quarterly updates for other taxes if they wish. Similarly, businesses with a turnover below the VAT threshold can choose to make quarterly updates voluntarily. 2020 is the next date in the MTDfB calendar: HMRC say this is the earliest that businesses and landlords will be required to keep digital accounting records and make quarterly updates for taxes other than VAT. New Tax-Free Childcare (almost) up and running The new Tax-Free Childcare scheme is now half way through its roll-out period. The first round of applications began in April 2017 and by the end of the year all eligible parents can apply. Potentially annual childcare costs of up to £10,000 per child can be met by £8,000 of payments by the parents and £2,000 by the government. For a disabled child, the maximum top-up payments...
