Digital Tax Accounts

Yesterday at the ICPA Conference one of the big subjects was the Digital Tax Accounts which are being brought in by HMRC. At the moment information on what format these will be and how they will work is not plentiful in fact HMRC do not seem to know some of the answers to what apears to be a political decision from HM Treasury perpetrated by an MP called David Gauke. Mr Gauke seems to be using dodgy dossiers for his facts and figures something usually associated with Tony Blair.

What we do know is Digital Tax Accounts will need to be completed quarterly the start date is April, 2018 for Property Landlords, Self Employed and Partnerships. Limited Companies are not expected to join until 2020. We also know that  Spreadsheets will not be acceptable under DTA. There will be a new submission system tied in with accounting software which means everyone will need to keep their records in a Digital approved format and those records will have to be kept up to date for the quarterly submissions.

What does this mean for our clients? Well it means many will have to change the way they operate and will have increased costs because there will be more work to do.

What does it mean for us as Accountants? Increased workload, We are also the ones who will have to explain to the clients how this new scheme works and how because of the extra workload we will have to increase their fees.

How are we going to be different? Where possible we will be looking to use our knowledge and systems to save our clients time. We expect to be able to show some clients that the new system will give them more time to spend on their business and that even after taking into accounts our increased fees we can help them make more money.

Now is the time to get started and be ahead of the crowd, the first step is to download our FREE Phone App YARE ACCOUNTANCY either Apple or Android as this will be regularly updated with information about DTA as it becomes available, it also contains many useful features to help you run your business. It is also the place in the future where you will be able to access the software keeping your records for the DTA