Wed 18 Mar 2015
The announcement that tax returns will become a thing of the past has been broadly welcomed by those who need to complete one and with a certain sense of disbelief by those who deal with HM Revenue and Customs and their online systems on a daily basis.
The Government’s vision is to create a digital tax account for every taxpayer by 2020. Stepping back from the detail, one imagines that in this brave new world, a UK individual will receive notification of their NI number before their 16th birthday together with details of their brand new digital tax account that will be with them until the day they die (and possibly for a short while afterwards).
Coming back to the present, initially the aim is to have by early 2016, five million small businesses and ten million individuals with their own digital tax account. It is intended that businesses will be able to feed their data straight into their digital tax account from their accounting software, and all information will be automatically populated regarding an individual’s employment, pension and savings income. Both individuals and their agents can view the digital tax account and make payments whenever necessary.
The Government will be publishing a roadmap later this year and consulting on how it will deliver the changes required. It remains to be seen if the required system upgrades and IT can support such grandiose plans however well intended.
For more information please contact:
Janet Pilborough-Skinner or Paul Barham
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