Latest News

Catch up with all the latest tax and accountancy news in this section. If you would like to sign up to our newsletter and recieve monthly updates of tax news and special offers please subscribe to our newlsetter.


Small businesses ‘not ready’ for Making Tax Digital, survey finds

Date Published: 22/02/2017

A survey carried out by the UK200Group has suggested that many small businesses do not feel prepared for the introduction of the government’s new Making Tax Digital (MTD) initiative, which is due to be implemented between 2018 and 2020.

The measure is intended to create a ‘transparent and accessible tax system fit for the digital age’.

The UK200Group found that 65% of firms currently do not make use of accounting software.

It also discovered that 22% of small businesses still keep their records manually, while 27% use basic computer programmes such as spreadsheets for their bookkeeping.

The Group notes that these firms will be required to ‘adopt a full accounting package to make them compatible with the Revenue’s plans’.

Richard McNeilly, Chair of the Digitalisation Taskforce at the UK200Group, commented: ‘MTD represents the single most significant change to the UK’s system of taxation in recent times, and many of our smaller business clients are simply not ready for it.

‘If the Revenue stays committed to having businesses report and pay tax digitally by 2018, small firms have only a short time to update their systems.’

Newsletter

Keep up to date with tax news that affects you.

Sign Up

Testimonials

Read more

Tax Advice Centre

Find out all you need to know about tax & accountancy with our free, easy to use guides and calculators

Learn More

The Guardian News Article

How to find an accountant to do your tax return

Learn More

We work with

subscribe to our newsletter