Government presses ahead with MTD to transform tax reporting to ‘real-time’

Speaking at the annual HMRC stakeholder conference, Mr Norman stressed the government's focus on on extending the Making Tax Digital programme, noting that by April next year, smaller VAT registered businesses will be required to sign up to MTD. 

"And from the following year we’re going to be extending MTD to income tax self-assessment for business and landlords with income over £10,000," Mr Norman said.

Noting that tax reporting will become increasingly real-time, the financial secretary explained that the ultimate goal is to enable taxpayers a single and, as far as possible, a complete financial picture of their tax situation. 

"Of course, there may also be end-of-year adjustments – I’m not downplaying the seriousness, in accordance with that issue – but that’s the goal. But it’s not just about systems, it’s about the everyday business of making tax easier to calculate and easier to understand," Mr Norman said.

"We want taxpayers to have the information they need to enable them to manage their tax affairs in one place. We want them to be able to understand their tax obligations more easily. We want them to be able to pull in more tailored support so that they can make better judgments."

Praising the government's £500 million commitment to MTD last summer, Mr Norman reiterated that a further £68 million has been set aside in the budget to take forward work on developing the single digital account and the customer record.

"If you haven’t yet shared your views with HMRC, please do so because, as I said earlier, we really need to move forward collectively on this. We need your stakeholder input if we’re going to get things right," Mr Norman concluded.