Tax changes for self-employed put on hold
- Details
- Published: Wednesday, 03 May 2017 07:46
- Written by News Editor
- Hits: 3977
Controversial plans to force millions of self-employed workers and companies to file multiple tax returns each year are to be ditched, which is good news for UK dentists according to NASDAL. Their media officer, Alan Suggett, said: “The aims of the scheme appeared to be laudable in terms of simplifying and making the tax system more efficient. However, the dental sector would have faced specific challenges.”
The timetable for the reforms is now “off the table” after it was dropped from the Treasury’s Finance Bill, allegedly because of time constraints imposed by the General Election. The move follows opposition from taxpayers, business groups and senior political figures from across all parties, with critics warning that the policy has not been scrutinised properly and could force small enterprises out of business. It is now being suggested that a pilot scheme and thorough cost-assessment take place before firm plans are made.
One of the key tenets of the scheme is the submission of quarterly tax returns to HMRC. This may not present much of an issue to most businesses as they are used to paying VAT on a quarterly basis and preparing monthly management accounts. However, dentists are not registered for VAT and even larger practices do not generally prepare monthly management accounts, or if they do, these don’t represent a true picture of turnover as such and various adjustments are required at the year end. Therefore, practice owners will often not have financially trained staff and normally use external accountants to prepare accounts. In the case of associates, almost all will rely on external accounting support.
Alan continued, “It seems that with a general election looming, it offered the government an opportunity to review MTD more closely and allow for proper scrutiny and how the scheme will work in practice. This could be seen as a pragmatic decision to ensure the government gets MTD right first time.”
You need to be logged in to leave comments.
Report