Making Tax Digital

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Interesting to see MP Murray now requiring the funds spent/wasted on MTD4IT for hospital operations etc.

Which should have been the priority?

Perhaps W Frost & Co might spring that question on him one day as no-one to date appears to quizzed him on his 'thorough interrogation' of HMRC.

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Labour signing their own death warrant...they don't appear to realise it yet which suggests the quote from a Labour MP on Have I Got News For You about having to accept that all potential Labour leaders are effing useless is accurate.


By anthonystorey
28th May 2026 17:29
With only 16 clients required to sign up for this first tranche it should have been easy. Far from it. I've spent hours and hours trying to assist clients setting up their apps and bank feeds. Some still haven't got them working, some haven't tried, others haven't a clue about anything digital and just look on bemused. And then there's the next lot, with many telling me that they going to retire before they have to sign up, or that they are going to reduce there hours to stay below the threshold.
From what I've seen so far, the quarterly reports, without significant intervention from me, will simply be garbage. And I haven't got the time or inclination to spend days every quarter correcting everything, so it won't get done. In which case what's the point of it.
One thing that I am sure about is that there will be a massive backlash against Making Tax Daunting as more and more taxpayers are drawn into it.

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By FactChecker
29th May 2026 20:42
It may eventually dawn on all those (including HMRC) that they've been sold a lemon.

MTD ITSA has very little to do with tax and tax returns (other than making a mess of a perfectly good SA system) ...
... as has been said before, it's MBD (Making Bookkeeping Digital) - and only partially!

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By AS44NG
29th May 2026 20:55
The time taken to register clients, update engagement letters and set up new software subscriptions (not to mention the cost) has been unwelcome at what is always a busy enough time of the year. Educating the clients to the new rules has been a so-so experience as I am sure many on here will attest to. We have 1 client of the 30 or so registering for MTD this year who has opted to "do it himself".

Couple this with the Companies House new ID verification requirements we have lost weeks of time over the last few months. Nice timing guys!

We have found some resistance from clients to the new fees being quoted which are double (ish). It has provided an opportunity to "up" the poorest fees to a more reasonable level.

We use Xero mostly which we have found to be superior to others. Some of the clients that we did have on "Ledger" subscriptions have had to be upgraded to MTD compliant subscriptions which has cost us some time, but not a lot.

I am yet to be convinced that MTD is worthwhile though that may be stating the obvious.

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But that's fine with the disjointed approach taken by HMRC, where:
- 'complete and accurate' isn't that essential when it comes to QUs (see Craig's previous comments)
- so data being submitted quarterly is really no more than a place-marker waiting to be overwritten
- the compliance metric will be whether a QU was 'recognised' as submitted by HMRC (not the content)
- everything that really matters (the annual return) can use different software & different data!
And where, most importantly, that AR is still not set in stone ... only yesterday new exemptions were added (when further scenarios were discovered that HMRC hadn't thought about before going live)!

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The Lord Carter report recommendation highlighted in 2006/2007 suggested that HMRC should ensure robust services by conducting rigorous testing at anticipated capacity 12 months before each mandatory implementation date.Here are the key takeaways regarding this recommendation:

Testing Requirement: Lord Carter recommended testing all mandatory online services at anticipated peak capacity 12 months before going live to avoid the system failures seen in previous HMRC IT projects.

Implementation Strategy: The recommendation stressed that each step of implementation should not proceed unless this 12-month testing produced satisfactory outcomes.

Background: The report indicated that HMRC's architecture was outdated and that extra capacity could not simply be bolted on, necessitated, in his view, a year-long, robust testing phase to ensure reliability.

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By Tornado
30th May 2026 10:52
HMRC describe the Job of Craig Ogilvie thus -

Making Tax Digital Programme
Director: Craig Ogilvie

Aims to help reduce the tax gap by requiring customers to keep digital records, use Making Tax Digital-compatible software and submit updates every quarter, bringing the tax system closer to real time.

With so much evidence to show that this is unlikely to happen and in particular the bit about bringing the tax system closer to real time (with regular tax updates based on crap data - HMRC admission) is definitely unlikely to happen.

Has Craig already failed at his job or do we have to wait until the bitter end for this to be accepted.

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Clarkson's Farm latest series lambasting (see what I did there) Labour policies as this thread will continue to do whilst MTD4IT continues.


By FactChecker
01st Jun 2026 13:03
"Arrogance of a Government that assumes everyone is able to use Accounting Software properly is truly breathtaking" ...

... almost as much as the arrogance that those making the decisions are (in all the cases I've met) themselves UNable to use Accounting software (properly or at all)!

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By johnthegood
03rd Jun 2026 09:34
The whole thing is a right old pain in the rear for no benefit, on that we all agree.

The flow of data from the client is pretty much always the delay factor.

So just throw any old poo at them in the QUs - personally I do not want to wait an extra 3 months to throw the poo, I would just end up with a very smelly hand.

On the other hand, as I say if you want to go all singing all dancing put them on software and do it all bit by bit across the quarter, just like you do with VAT.

PS Pothole update...they have closed the road. A disappearing horse seems to have forced their hand.

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Has HMRC thought enough about universal credit claimants?

Robyn Milstead: This is one of my main concerns. It’s possible to be caught by MTD and also be on universal credit because the MTD threshold is based on gross income, not profit. Universal credit claimants already report monthly, and those periods don’t necessarily align with MTD quarters. That can create a heavy reporting burden.

Emma Rawson: The difficulty is that HMRC and the Department for Work and Pensions operate separate systems, and government systems do not always share data easily. A pragmatic option would have been to exempt universal credit claimants, at least initially.

By agknight
04th Jun 2026 13:13
The Universal Credit angle is new to my thinking.

So those at the bottom end of the income ladder will have to submit nine (or ten) returns each year.

And of course for no good reason, as for everyone else.

I think every Chancellor inculding and since George Osborne should be called together to explain themselves as to what they were thinking, other than their elevation to the Lords or some other gravy train at the time of being in te role.