You may have heard that the Government recently announced a new timetable for Making Tax Digital (MTD).
Originally, the start date for many businesses was April 2018, however, they will now not be asked to keep digital records, or update HMRC quarterly, until at least 2020. This applies to all taxes except VAT. Businesses with a turnover above the VAT threshold (currently £85,000) will still have to keep digital records for VAT purposes from April 2019.
Although this new timetable will obviously give many businesses more time to prepare for the changes, we shouldn’t expect this to be the end of the matter. One of the aims of MTD is for the Treasury to recover tax lost due to businesses keeping poor records – reported to be a staggering £8 billion every year. Clearly this still needs to be addressed.
With these changes in mind, Larking Gowen has put a huge amount of effort into finding the best possible solutions for our clients. While MTD may have been one of the main reasons for change, the benefits for businesses of using digital cloud based systems go way beyond the simple compliance with MTD.
Businesses who are already embracing these cloud based solutions are seeing huge benefits in terms of the reduced time working on their accounting records and an increase in the management information available. This is giving business owners more free time to do other things as well as allowing them to make better business decisions based on current financial information. It also gives confidence to their bank that they have good financial disciplines in place which in turn helps them to make a more prompt lending decision.
While the changes to the MTD timetable are good news for some, we are still very keen to talk to our clients about this. We want all of our clients to reap the benefits of the solutions that are available and after all, we now have more chance of choosing a time to implement change that suits our clients, rather than trying to fit in with an imposed timetable to suit the Government.
If you have already made these changes and are ready for MTD when it comes, that is great news. If not, please contact us to discuss how you may also benefit from the new way of working and at the same time future proof your accounting systems.
Making Business Digital – save the date
Choosing new digital technologies in a rapidly expanding online world may seem complex and daunting, but make the right decisions and it can pay dividends in the long run. Our event will profile technology currently available to help your business.
Ipswich
Ipswich Town Football Club, Portman Road, Ipswich, IP1 2DA
Tuesday 28 November
Norwich
Barnham Broom Hotel, Honingham Road, Norwich, NR9 4DD
Thursday 30 November
Contact John on 01328 863121 or email john.cunningham@larking-gowen.co.uk
