Digital reporting and record-keeping for business: income tax - CIOT comments

We have sent our comments to HMRC on the draft Finance Bill clauses published on 31 January.

In our response we say that we are concerned that the requirements of Making Tax Digital (MTD) will come into force before there has been adequate time to prepare and consult on the legislation necessary to introduce MTD. We remain of the view that the timeframe for mandating MTD should be extended for at least a year, so that the fullest consultation and scrutiny of both primary and secondary legislation, can take place. By delegating key details to secondary legislation, and using the negative procedure (rather than the affirmative procedure) it is more or less inevitable that the secondary legislation will receive little if any Parliamentary scrutiny.  At some places, it appears that material delegated to secondary legislation can then be further delegated to directions and notices. This is giving HMRC extremely wide powers to make provisions without any scrutiny at all, which is our view is unacceptable for what is one of the biggest changes to the tax system in decades.