MTD, the response documents
January 31, 2017Well, here we go: the responses to MTD are now live. There’s a ton of stuff to read, so I’m going to post my immediate responses “live” as I go through them. Watch this space! (or, temporarily turn off notifications if you get update notices)
- The overview. It’s not easy to find. Starting from the “consultations” page on gov.uk I got all excited when today’s list showed MTD updated 31 January. But when you go to it, it’s not immediately obvious what’s been updated at all. The actual response document is linked from the paragraph that reads
Over 1,200 people responded to this online survey and individual responses were fed into the other consultations to support the government’s thinking. Many of the responses helped influence key outcomes.
Now, maybe it’s just me, but I wouldn’t immediately have thought that “other consultations to support the government’s thinking” was a signal for “look! Here’s the responses doc!” (updated 3.20pm)
2. Ah! I see! There’s an overview document (like there was for the original pack of consultations) Right then: here’s a link to the overview. Speed reading: first reaction? Great flying spaghetti monster but it’s a complacent piece of spin. Everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds, and a committee of MPs has published a report but we’ve addressed “many” of their recommendations. (As I recall, the Treasury Select Committee report wasn’t happy at all). Not sanguine!
3.40 pm. Aha! I just had an email from the MTD correspondence address:
Dear stakeholder,
Thank you for responding to our consultations on Making Tax Digital last year. We’re extremely pleased with the level of response to the consultations and grateful for the time and effort that you took to send us your views.
A summary of feedback received, the government’s decisions and our next steps have been published today in six response documents on GOV.UK. If you’re short of time, we’ve also published a short overview which draws out the key conclusions from each of the consultations.
Over the consultation period, we held a number of events with interested parties to communicate and discuss the proposals, including face-to-face meetings, and webinars for the public and tax agents, which attracted over 3,000 participants. HMRC also attended a range of conferences and events to reach as many stakeholders as possible. Feedback from these events has also been considered as part of the formal consultation exercise.
Your input is important as it has not only informed the development of policy and draft legislation, but has also helped give us a clearer understanding of the needs of our customers as we implement Making Tax Digital.
Thank you again for your participation.
Jim Harra
Director General, Customer Strategy and Tax Design, HMRC
Onwards! Next reading: the revised impact assessment.
4. The impact assessment. Er, the admin burden savings figures have been revised. A lot. And, lo! The transitional costs of £100m, £500m and £350m to 2020 add up to £950m. Now, where have I seen that figure before…????
The MTDfB changes will contribute £945 million to the Exchequer by 2020 to 2021.
Oh yeah, that was it.
tiintax 
Not wishing to spoiler this, but… don’t get your hopes too high.
Word!