Professional services
Get ready for Making Tax Digital A
year has passed since the government announced its Making Tax Digital
initiative in July 2017, with the aim of modernising and creat- ing a more effi cient tax system for UK businesses, the self-em- ployed, and landlords. Making Tax
Digital will EXPERT VIEW
Farm businesses and the self- employed must prepare for the upcoming digital revolution of tax, says Lucinda Davenport
come into force for VAT in April 2019, and will be extended to in- come tax in 2020. So it is key for self-employed individuals, land- lords and business owners – with gross turnover and/or rents over £10,000 – to know exactly what it means for them.
What will it involve? Records will have to be kept dig- itally and taxpayers will have to send quarterly updates with sum- maries of income and expenditure to HMRC. The requirement will be to submit the update within one month after the quarter end. Year-end fi nalisation of trad- ing results will be required by ei- ther 10 months after the end of the accounting period, or January 31 following the year of charge of the profi ts – whichever comes fi rst.
Making Tax Digital will bene-
fi t businesses in a variety of ways: • Individuals will no longer have to give HMRC information that it already has or can easily get from employers, banks, other govern- ment departments. • Information held by HMRC will be easily accessible for indi- viduals to check that their details are complete and correct. • HMRC will collect and process tax information in near real time, with no need for individuals to wait until the end of the tax year to fi nd out how much they must pay. • Individuals will be able to in- teract with HMRC digitally and at a time to suit them. By 2020, people will have their own digital account, just like online banking. Digital record-keeping means either using specially approved accounting software or – spread- sheets in conjunction with other software – to allow a fl ow of data between farm businesses and the HMRC.
Transactions will need to be
analysed in accordance with the categories on the current self-as- sessment return.
Businesses
Call for new approach to tackle illegal encampments
The Country Land and Business Association has called for a new offence of criminal trespass for people who enter and occupy pri- vate land for residential purpos- es without consent.
The CLA told a government review tackling illegal gypsy and traveller sites that the law in England and Wales should be changed to make it an offence to set up unauthorised residential developments and encampments in the countryside.
A government consultation is looking at the effectiveness of enforcement against illegal sites. The CLA said police and local au- thorities were often unwilling to help when unauthorised camps were on private land and failed to use enforcement powers effec- tively to remove illegal camps. CLA policy director Christo-
“
To really tackle the problem, it is vital to make the law simpler and easier to enforce
pher Price said: “Illegal encamp- ments in rural areas have a detri- mental economic, environmental and social impact on local busi- nesses and communities as well as to the private landowner. The current law is failing and it is time for a new approach.”
Criminal offence Mr Price added: “Existing powers for removal are not used frequent- ly enough or effectively on private land to ensure swift removal. To really tackle the problem, it is vi- tal to make the law simpler and
easier to enforce. “This can be done by making it a criminal offence to set up an unauthorised residential camp. This would act as a deterrent to those who might consider occupy- ing land without consent and pro- vide greater certainty for the po- lice to act if they understand that an offence has been committed.” In addition, Mr Price said lo- cal authorities must provide suf- fi cient permanent or temporary residential sites for the gypsy and traveller community to avoid the problems that arise from unau- thorised encampments. The planning system was be- ing undermined by the problem of unauthorised developments, add- ed Mr Price. More funding was needed to speed up the removal of sites and the enforcement ap- peals process, he said.
Key dates For
will not be required to keep dig- ital copies of their receipts – it is the transactions that need to be stored digitally.
businesses with turnover
that exceeds the VAT threshold, obligations for VAT start with ef- fect from the fi rst VAT return pe- riod, beginning on or after April 1, 2019. VAT returns for these busi- nesses will have to be fi led using third-party commercial software. There will be no keying-in of values into HMRC’s online VAT100 form. VAT-registered businesses with turnover below the VAT threshold can opt-in to Making Tax Digital for VAT. Making Tax Digital for income tax will not be mandated until April 2020 at the earliest. Obli- gations are likely to begin with ef- fect from the fi rst accounting pe- riod beginning after 5 April of the relevant tax year that MTD for income tax is introduced.
Lucinda Davenport is an agri- cultural specialist at Crowthers Chartered Accountants. For de- tails, visit
www.crowther.co.uk.
Successful update on supply chain assurance
More than 400 delegates have registered for seminars to up- date participants about AIC Assurance Schemes that un- derpin food and feed safety in the agri-food supply chains. “The level of attendance and engagement refl ects how seriously the supply industries are taking their responsibili- ties in the areas of assurance,” said John Kelley, managing di- rector of AIC Services which is responsible for the FEMAS, UFAS and TASCC schemes. After extensive indus- try consultation, the AIC has combined all the codes covering merchanting, storage, testing and transport of combinable crops into a single publication with more dependence on our website to maintain issues that change rapidly.
JULY 2018 • ANGLIA FARMER 57
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