Making Tax Digital

[etf]

The smash potato aliens omitted this from their side splitting list:

I tried to call about the late filing penalty as recommended here and the voice indicated a wait of 20 minutes. A lot of talk then some music and then just cut off after 5 minutes. I looked up the service dashboard under self assessment. It was updated a few days ago. Under Appeal a penalty by post- it says delayed service. 'we are currently processing requests received on 25 March 2025'. That is a lot of appeals and a lot of hand wringing in the meantime when the debt collector starts to attempt collection of the fine, or whatever. Are we seriously expected to wait a year for some action?

HMRC is clearly not coping with their current work load so to dump a huge new reporting system into the workings could totally seize the engine. I've already read it is suggested HMRC is rejecting people from MTD4IT because they have not processed filed paper tax returns.

Did MP Murray's 'thorough investigation' highlight these potential problems? Will anyone ever ask him?

[etf]

MTD4IT...diverting HMRC resources from where required...under my suggested rules the top brass are in jeopardy.

Clifton Brown & Co are very good at making eye catching headlines but do they ever follow anything up?...seemingly not given HMRC's non-performance over suuuuuuuuch a long period.

we are currently processing requests received on 25 March 2025'

If there is any unanswered post 12 months after it was received, HMRC is failing. I'd make it a sackable offence for the top brass..you would soon discover behaviour change with that brief. You could then reduce the unstretching 12 month target to 6 months etc.

[etf]

XTC's song...We're only making plans for Nigel


By agknight
12th Mar 2026 16:07
With MTD not applying to partnerships as well as limited companies, someone with sense will turn around in the future and say why. Why are sole traders and landlords doing this extra work.

Then someone will look at HMRC and will ask, what are you doing with all that (useless) data from seasonal businesses, building contractors with lumpy sales etc. The answer will be nothing, we are drowning in useless data.

Then we hope a political party comes along with a lightbulb policy to scrap MTD and go back to annual reporting, saving businesses and HMRC a lot of money and killing the leech software providers, just waiting in the wings to jack up their fees and take long holidays!

By Penny Cole
12th Mar 2026 09:27
I joined an HMRC webinar yesterday and have attended several others from other providers, but not once could I get an answer to my question "what is the point of MTD"? I was just ignored. I can see no benefits whatsoever except for big brother and lots and lots of extra civil servants to process the work.

[etf]

MP Murray loves this post:

By Southwestbeancounter
12th Mar 2026 16:21

agknight wrote:
Then we hope a political party comes along with a lightbulb policy to scrap MTD and go back to annual reporting, saving businesses and HMRC a lot of money and killing the leech software providers, just waiting in the wings to jack up their fees and take long holidays!

That's what Labour should have done when they came to power but they missed a golden opportunity there!

[etf]

J-P Marks is running a two tier tax system discriminating against certain cohorts of taxpayers

Here is the proof......HMRC has dealt with MTD4IT post despite it arriving at HMRC 6 months after the late filing penalty appeal in the 2nd quote. HMRC's Charter includes a section 'Treating you fairly. How is this fair?

By FactChecker
11th Mar 2026 22:25
* "864,000 individuals are expected to come into the first tranche"
* "81,000 taxpayers have signed up"
* "HMRC has received 2,200 exemption applications"
* "the Revenue has dealt with half of these requests"

I tried to call about the late filing penalty as recommended here and the voice indicated a wait of 20 minutes. A lot of talk then some music and then just cut off after 5 minutes. I looked up the service dashboard under self assessment. It was updated a few days ago. Under Appeal a penalty by post- it says delayed service. 'we are currently processing requests received on 25 March 2025'. That is a lot of appeals and a lot of hand wringing in the meantime when the debt collector starts to attempt collection of the fine, or whatever. Are we seriously expected to wait a year for some action?

[etf]

At times readership of this thread goes bonkers.....scrolling back did I undercover the Chinese undercover agents before MI5/MI6?...forgotten I'd written that.

I'm available for lottery numbers for a small fee

by etf » Mon Nov 24, 2025 7:47 am

I do question whether Labour has already been infiltrated by Russian/Chinese agents given their policies to stagnate the economy...the self employed can complete 5 tax returns instead of one and pay through the nose in terms of both cost/time....for zero benefit. That is going to help business motor forward. The Madness of Murray.

Susanna Reid/Ed Balls seemingly still not on their radar.

[etf]

Yesterday, Accountingweb deleted a number of slightly negative posts aimed at Craig Ogilvie (HMRC's MTD4IT implementation Tsar). Has Accountingweb been infiltrated by the Chinese/Russians too?.....Labour's plan to stagnate the British economy must not be stopped!:

By AdamJones82
12th Mar 2026 11:39
How come my comment criticising Ogilvie got deleted.......


Replying to AdamJones82:

By Paul Crowley
12th Mar 2026 11:53
He is a favourite of the Aweb team and needs to be protected and cherished.


Replying to AdamJones82:

By Leywood
13th Mar 2026 13:56
So was mine.

Despite it being in answer to the question asked.



Replying to Leywood:

By Paul Crowley
13th Mar 2026 15:08
No decent accountant just answers questions.
it is censorship of valid comment.

My comment of
'Gosh, nobody knows' got cut. A very direct answer to the question, but not what Aweb wants.


Replying to Paul Crowley:

By FactChecker
13th Mar 2026 15:55
Now that you mention it, I see that a Thanks I received at 10:37 this morning was for a post that has also been deleted.
It was a reply to you - and simply said:
"The big question is ... does HE know what he said?"

Seemed a valid question to me (albeit phrased in sardonic terms), given that no-one (including the editors) seems to have found anything in whatever he said to report.

He surely can't be *that* sensitive AND suited to his current role, can he?

[etf]

The Chinese/Russians are definitely involved:

By AdamJones82
13th Mar 2026 18:34
Long live our glorious MTD leader, the new system is amazing.

[etf]

Is there an HMRC MTD for Income Tax Helpline?

By cbp99
17th Mar 2026 19:26
HMRC don't yet know the answers themselves. And they don't know how to operate a helpline.

By FactChecker
17th Mar 2026 19:38
No is the short answer - because the team that you, quite naturally want to exist and which everyone might have expected to be a priority, doesn't exist.

It would have been an excellent question to have asked Craig when you attended the session with him at FAB last week.
Although of course it may be that he didn't really say anything concrete ... judging by https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/any-answers/what-did-craig-ogilvie-say-a... ?

HMRC seem very keen (even more so than usual) to NOT provide any easy access to humans when support is needed for MTD IT.
They're happy to:
* point the finger at software suppliers (who not only won't know the answers to non-software questions but are explicitly excluding themselves from general support);
* or at GOV.UK guidance (that is currently less joined-up than usual and exceedingly short of useful examples);
* or at their usual 'chat' facilities (which are yet to be supported themselves by anyone with in-depth training on MTD IT);
... but a specific "HMRC MTD for Income Tax Helpline" - you were joking presumably?

The only topic-specific support for MTD IT was announced as part of the inducement to 'get in early' (i.e. volunteer to register for the pilot ahead of mandation). But even that announcement was transformed in reality to:
a) not being the promised one-to-one Q&A but merely an invite to a Teams session where, by all accounts, awkward questions (that's to say most of them) were ignored;
b) a combination of those sessions being delayed for 2 months and the nearness to the go live date meant there were few such sessions (and attendance was restricted)![/color

By Tornado
17th Mar 2026 19:55
A fantastic question (quite literally). Fantasy is what MTD is all about.

There needs to be a fully trained Self Assessment Team and a fully trained MTD Team. It seems they forgot about the latter.

Good luck to HMRC with that.

By possep
17th Mar 2026 19:58
No chance. The people manning the helpline are not specially trained either. This is going to crash big time.

By rmillaree
17th Mar 2026 20:44
100% agree

the amount of complicated techical stuff there is - i would be surprised if this doesnt go into meltdown quickly - unless they delay mandation for those lucky enough to have not signed up.

they may be able to fend it for now - but as soon as it hits the front page of the daily mail though RR and KS will have to do their norm.

how they cant pretend the whole process is simple and easy - when they cant man a helpline - thats says it all

[etf]

FactChecker on the Companies House data breach.

By FactChecker
17th Mar 2026 17:06
Quite ... they put up a nice new, shiny front-door and demanded that you verify your ID.

BUT they also left spare copies of keys to all the other doors and windows scattered around the car-park and grounds.

What WE don't know (and they either don't know or won't tell us) is:
- how many of those keys were picked up and used to effect illegal entry;
- how many of those went on to make one or more changes to data.

That is frankly an even bigger disgrace than having allowed the system to go live without proper testing.

So reassuring that HMRC has fully tested the MTD4IT system....but wait see below.

By kevinringer
28th Jun 2025 09:41
But that's completely against the online service recommendations laid down by Lord Carter and accepted by HMRC. To comply with Carter, the cycle of reporting needs testing, including capacity testing, 12 months before mandation. In other words, mandation can only start 12 months after all systems are complete and capacity tested. Systems are not complete and not capacity tested, which means MTD cannot start 06/04/2026 and will have to be postponed until 06/04/2027. Unless HMRC ignore Carter, which might well happen because there's probably no one in HMRC who remembers it.

Having watched Keir repeatedly fail to answer questions at PMQ just now I have no hope for us.