Expected to impact more than 3m small businesses of self-employed and landlords, Ministers have announced next steps for the Making Tax Digital initiative such that:
– only businesses with a turnover above the VAT threshold (currently £85,000) will have to keep digital records and only for VAT purposes
– they will only need to do so from 2019
– businesses will not be asked to keep digital records, or to update HMRC quarterly, for other taxes until at least 2020
Making Tax Digital will be available on a voluntary basis for the smallest businesses, and for other taxes. This means that businesses and landlords with a turnover below the VAT threshold will be able to choose when to move to the new digital system.
As VAT already requires quarterly returns, no business will need to provide information to HMRC more regularly during this initial phase than they do now.