Making Tax Digital

The Making Tax Digital Panic

Following the mad panic of GDPR, with many companies panicking over regulations and last minute attempts at compliance, concerns over next year’s requirement by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to make tax digital are already starting to ramp up. In fact, just like with GDPR, many companies are using this hype as a way of cashing in on the next trend – Googling (or Binging!) “Making Tax Digital” brings up a lot of Pay Per Click (PPC) results from some of the smaller finance software companies. So what are the facts, and what does being a Microsoft software user mean?

What is Making Tax Digital?

HMRC are trying to modernise with the aim of making it easier for people to use their services. As a starting point, meeting VAT obligations will become mandatory in April 2019. In the long term, this will allow people to get a more centralised and comprehensive view of their financial affairs – the tax system will become more like online banking with all of the ease and support involved.

See more from HMRC

How is this going to be achieved?

Realistically, businesses will be using their finance or ERP software to connect directly to HMRC. This fact makes the “arms race” of finance software for MTD obsolete – everyone will have to do it! One of the benefits of having a well-supported system, such as Microsoft Dynamics, is that they will always spend the money on R&D to make sure that their systems are up to date for local legislation. So…

Are Microsoft going to support MTD?

Of course! As an active part of the Dynamics community, we were involved with a call with Microsoft this week, where we discussed the fact that Microsoft are directly working along with HMRC on Making Tax Digital. As usual, Microsoft are heavily involved with any legislation, including putting forwards the needs of the market to those writing the laws. If you have a supported version Microsoft Dynamics NAV or are on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, you will be entitled to receive updates as appropriate. If you are not on a supported system, you need to talk to us about getting an installation, upgrade or retrofitting the requirement to your current solution!

Announcements will be made as details are released, so keep an eye on our blog or sign up to our newsletter for more information.

Jesse Lawrence

Jesse is our marketing manager, keeping an eye on the latest news in the market as well as having worked on the GDPR legislation.