MTD might be a shambles but at least the tax authority is good at social media, writes Tony Margaritelli.
Welcome to the latest edition of HMRC EIP magazine.
Welcome to the latest issue of our magazine, and it’s a special warm welcome to our first-time contributors Siddharth Agarwal, Sarah Prothero, Kate Garcia, Helen Pearson and Lucy Ryczany who, together with stalwarts Jesminara Rahman, Nick McLeman, Elliot Geen, Tony Monger and David Francis, make this another stonking issue. And let’s not forget our two regular award-winning columnists Robyn Milstead and Paul Rosser.
So, what has been happening in the couple of months since our last issue? Undoubtedly, the major issue was the first MTD quarterly update (if you missed yours don’t worry, there is no penalty for you this time). This is surprising, because if you are among the next two tranches to be mandated, having a turnover above £30,000 and £20,000 respectively, such luxuries as a penalty-free period of a year will NOT be available to you. So straight away you know where you stand with HMRC, don’t you? Namely, not big enough to get the same level of help afforded others.
Why, I wonder, are those taxpayers excluded from the receiving HMRC’s largesse?
Could it be that they think it will all go so swimmingly well in the first year that everyone will register and file on time? Is it even about the taxpayer or are they actually offering the free period because they know their own processes were never going to be robust enough from the outset? And it’s HMRC that will let down the compliant taxpayer and his or her hard-working agent? As has been the case already, after just the first filing date. Surely it couldn’t be anything to do with HMRC’s inability to deliver, otherwise I’m sure we would have heard about it from HMRC via their social media mouthpieces.
At the outset of MTD HMRC said, on countless occasions, that they would not enrol taxpayers into MTD – it was the taxpayers’ responsibility – and yet now they will, starting from September.
Another climbdown, another botched promise, another failure. But, don’t worry, I’m certain the spin doctors are already working away on how to spin this out across social media, which actually is one thing they have excelled at as evidenced by all the awards handed out.
Should we expect better from HMRC? Of course we should. Should we complain more? Of course we should. Will it make any difference at all?
Who knows, but if we do just think: at least we are keeping the spin doctors in a job.
- Tony Margaritelli is the Publisher of HMRC EIP magazine