Making Tax Digital

Making tax digital
A new era for UK tax starts in 2018 and will be fully in place by 2021
Collecting all tax information digitally
All personal and business tax information will be collected digitally - so now is the time to prepare
Dafferns, your digital tax advisor
Controlling, sorting and making sense of all the information HMRC collect about you digitally

Jackie Whitehouse - Personal tax client advisor
The Dafferns plan
Dafferns are ahead of the game on MTD. Training our staff, selecting the best software and keeping you informed
Dafferns, experts on MTD
We are here to make MTD a simple and hassle free process for you and your business

Megan Hall - Personal tax trainee
The end of the tax return by 2020
MTD means the end of the tax return and the end of the 31 January deadline. But in its place will be quarterly reporting and the need to have up to date accounting information all the time
The UK tax system is complicated
The UK tax system is complex and convoluted. MTD will make some things more straight forward, but HMRC are not going away, so more than ever you need careful sensible tax planning and advice
Experience and knowledge
Our private client tax team work closely with their clients provide a fast, efficient personal service

Carol Jones - Private client tax advisor
All accounts will be on the cloud
The quarterly submission of accounts information to HMRC by sole traders, partnerships and companies will mean the end to out of date desktop software. Cloud accounting is the future
Helping you with cloud accounting for MTD
We can help you set up a simple efficient cloud accounting system to ensure your small business can comply with MTD
BR>Margaret Hopkins - Small Business accounts advisor
Working with you to minimise your tax
Sensible, ethical, non provocative tax planning is at the core of what we do for our clients

Teresa Roberts - Private client tax advisor
Dafferns are ahead of the game with MTD
120 years of history, early adopters with electronic filing in the 25 years ago and still ahead of the game today with Making Tax Digital

Government Finally Sees Sense on Plans for Making Tax Digital

14 Jul 2017

I am very pleased to see the government and HMRC have announced that plans to impose quarterly reporting on unincorporated businesses from April 2018 have... Read More

Main effects of the Spring Budget

24 Mar 2017

Reduction to the Dividend Allowance The £5,000 annual dividend allowance introduced last year will be reduced to £2,000 from April 2018, which will hit small... Read More

Budget 2017: Tax squeeze to continue

08 Mar 2017

The Government has in recent years increased the amount of tax raised by targeting certain sectors. Landlords have been particularly hit in recent years with... Read More

What you need to know about MTD

What is Making Tax Digital?

Making Tax Digital (MTD) is a government initiative to modernise HMRC’s tax system, with the aim of making the whole process of administrating tax simpler and more efficient. All of your tax information will be in one place (your digital account) and you will be able to pay tax based on your business activity during the year and you can upload and update your tax account in real time.

Will it affect me?

If you own a business, you are self-employed or a landlord and you pay income tax, national insurance, VAT or corporation tax then it is quite likely you will be affected. This means you will be required to keep track of your tax affairs digitally using MTD compatible software, and to update HMRC at least quarterly via your digital tax account. Eventually this will abolish the annual tax return. This will be the law and there will be penalties for non- compliance.

What do I have to do?

You will need to open and log into your digital account. Everyone will be allocated one through the current Government Gateway. Then you will need to ensure your accounting software can update this account at least quarterly. For most businesses this means a move away from desktop and onto cloud based accounting software.

You are required to maintain your business records electronically and to provide updates of information to HMRC. You will be prompted to send summary updates directly to HMRC – quarterly updates will need to be submitted within a month of quarter end, and an end of year activity report will be due within nine months of the end of the accounting year.

As your accountant and tax agent, we can advise you on the software you will need and how to comply with the new quarterly reporting requirements.

When is all this happening?

MTD starts with larger unincorporated businesses for accounting periods commencing on or after 6 April 2018. There are various dates after this when other types of businesses have to comply.

What's next?

We will be contacting all of our clients in 2017 to prepare you and get you ready for Digital Tax well in advance. In the meantime, if you want to discuss how this affects you and your business please contact us.