SME's in digital tax warning

Small firms in digital tax warning MPs have been warned that HMRC’s Making Tax Digital initiative – which will see VAT-registered firms with an annual turnover of more than £85,000 filing tax returns online from April 1 – will hit small businesses, creating "very serious problems for a lot of companies". Martin McTague, policy and advocacy chairman at the Federation of Small Businesses, told the Treasury committee: "HMRC has underestimated the reaction they are going to get. We are literally weeks away so we are very, very close to a very serious problem for a lot of companies." ICAEW research shows that 40% of affected businesses were unaware of the change, with the institute’s senior policy adviser Anita Monteith commenting: “Making it mandatory at a time when businesses are clearly not ready and when businesses have got Brexit - whatever that involves - at the same time just seems unwelcome.”