Chartered Accountants Ireland: no case for changing income tax registration date

That’s according to the Institute in its response to the Call for evidence: Income Tax Self-Assessment registration for the self-employed and landlords. The Institute also called into question the need for a registration deadline given that many other countries, including Ireland, do not have one and still have high levels of tax compliance. Tax agents also should not have a formalised role in Income Tax Self-Assessment (“ITSA”) registration.

The Institute’s other key recommendations are as follows:

• There should be no change made to the current ITSA registration obligation. HMRC should instead focus on making more effective use of its power to issue failure to notify penalties but should also consider if the current registration obligation should be removed;
• Even if the registration obligation is reformed, any change should not take effect until April 2026 at the earliest (and not April 2024) and failure to notify penalties should remain unchanged;
• The Government/HMRC should implement the tax education recommendations of the Office of Tax Simplification in addition to the recommendations to develop start-up guidance for those new to ITSA;
• HMRC should develop a Check Trading Status for Tax tool which should be made available on GOV.UK; and
• HMRC should make clear that it has no intention of using an earlier ITSA registration date to mandate MTD for ITSA from this date.