A no-holds-barred MTD brainstorm by industry thought-leaders rounded off an excellent IRIS World conference in London.
Steve Cox, the leading UK software group’s chief evangelist, led the discussion.
On the panel were: HMRC VAT policy lead Kamran Quadri; Anita Monteith, ICAEW tax manager; Lee Hawksworth HMRC’s head of software developer collaboration; Companies House digital lead Ross Maude; and digital expert Will Farnell of Farnell-Clark.
Digital evolution
Will, who runs a cloud practice in Norwich, takes a positive approach to the digital evolution and is confident that his clients are MTD ready.
But he believes communication is vital. “We had a lightbulb moment when we realised that we hadn’t talked to our clients.
“We had to reassure them that they were ‘MTD ready’ and that we were watching their backs.”
Need for pragmatism
With the MTD VAT deadline of April 1 2019, looming large there is a clear need for realism and practicality. To that end there is much talk of spreadsheet “bridging software” and a “soft landing” to ease the new regime’s mandation.
Politics is getting in the way. It’s trying to make things happen too quickly. It’s too fast for what business dictates
But, providing the alarming statistic of the day, Anita said: “About 40 per cent of VAT registered businesses don’t know anything about it at all! And 89 per cent of businesses are doing VAT in the old-fashioned way.”
HMRC’s Lee Hawksworth said: “We have been improving and testing. April 1 2019 is not a cliff edge – it’s the first point in a bigger transformation.
Good advice and education
“There are some big steps that need to be taken. Good advice and good education are essential.” Lee recognises the importance of pragmatism. On spreadsheets, he said: “I wouldn’t say that they have had their day just yet.”
Ultimately there is still much scepticism in the industry over the way MTD is being mandated/implemented.
Anita said: “Politics is getting in the way. It’s trying to make things happen too quickly. It’s too fast for what business dictates.”
And she said that the HMRC communications strategy was falling well short of what was required.
Even the HMRC’s own man Lee admitted: “I personally get a bit nervous when governments start mandating technology solutions.”
Quite. The powers that be are much better being left to deal with things like, er, Brexit…