That’s according to the Northern Ireland Tax Committee in its response to the consultation “Tertiary legislation for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax”. The Committee also highlighted the lack of available software and the importance of ensuring that detailed guidance is not only developed as soon as possible but that it must explicitly set out the digital record keeping requitements for businesses under Making Tax Digital (“MTD”) for income tax.
The Committee also made the following recommendations:-
- HMRC should work at pace and aim to publish the final MTD for Income Tax notices and more detailed guidance as a matter of urgency;
- The reporting simplification for smaller businesses should be automatically available to those business with turnover less than £85,000 and this simplification should be de-linked from the VAT registration threshold;
- HMRC should establish a dedicated MTD for Income Tax exemptions unit to deal with exemption applications; and
- HMRC should also explore what further categories of exemptions should be made available.
In other consultation news, HMRC has also recently published two further consultation outcomes:-
The Institute responded to both of these consultation; you can read our submissions here and here. The employment status consultation was conducted in 2018 and its outcome is only now being published.
According to the accompanying email from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Government has also announced new employment status guidance designed to provide additional clarity for businesses, individuals and other groups such as those in the gig economy, so that they have a better understanding of which employment status for employment rights (including pay, leave and working conditions) an individual falls into.
The guidance also makes reference to an update to the ‘Calculating the Minimum Wage’ guidance which has been refreshed to provide more information about what counts as working time for National Minimum Wage purposes in the gig economy.
The guidance is being published alongside the Government response to this consultation on employment status, where many respondents called for additional clarity around the employment status boundaries and examples of how to apply the rules to different scenarios.
A new consultation on the UK Single Trade Window (“STW”) has also been recently opened. This consultation sets out the UK government’s proposed approach to four key areas where legislation will be needed to enable the full functionality of the STW:-
- The collection, use and sharing of data within government;
- Enabling government visibility, and use of, supply chain data;
- Facilitating trade through targeted international data sharing with other countries and territories; and
- Transitioning to the STW as the sole point of entry for border data required for transactional processes.
The Government is interested in any views or feedback to ensure the STW improves UK businesses’ ability to import and export by reducing costs and burdens, and ultimately drives economic growth. Should you wish to discuss the proposals, please contact btbo-event-enquiries@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.