DMS Posts, Tax

Government announces phased mandation of Making Tax Digital for ITSA

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Understanding that self-employed individuals and landlords are currently facing a challenging economic environment, and the transition to Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax Self Assessment (ITSA) represents a significant change to taxpayers and HMRC for how self-employment and property income is reported, the government is giving a longer period to prepare for MTD. The mandatory use of software is therefore being phased in from April 2026, rather than April 2024.

From April 2026, self-employed individuals and landlords with an income of more than £50,000 will be required to keep digital records and provide quarterly updates on their income and expenditure to HMRC through MTD-compatible software. Those with an income of between £30,000 and £50,000 will need to do this from April 2027. Most customers will be able to join voluntarily beforehand meaning they can eliminate common errors and save time managing their tax affairs.

The government has also announced a review into the needs of smaller businesses, and particularly those under the £30,000 income threshold. The review will consider how MTD for ITSA can be shaped to meet the needs of these smaller businesses and the best way for them to fulfil their Income Tax obligations. It will also inform the approach for any further roll out of MTD for ITSA after April 2027.

Mandation of MTD for ITSA will not be extended to general partnerships in 2025 as previously announced. The government remains committed to introducing MTD for ITSA to partnerships in line with its vision set out in the government’s tax administration strategy.

Victoria Atkins, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said:

It is right to take the time to work together to maximise the benefits of Making Tax Digital for small businesses by implementing the change gradually. It is important to ensure this works for everyone: taxpayers, tax agents, software developers, as well as HMRC.

Smaller businesses in particular should be able to experience the benefits of increased digitalisation of Income Tax in a way which meets their needs. That is why we are also today announcing a review to establish the best way to achieve this.

Jim Harra, Chief Executive and First Permanent Secretary, HM Revenue and Customs, said:

HMRC remains committed to the delivery of Making Tax Digital as a critical part of our strategy for digitalising and modernising the tax system, but we want to make sure we get this right and deliver it effectively.

A phased approach to mandating MTD for Income Tax will allow us to work together with our partners to make sure that our self-employed and landlord customers can make the most of the opportunities this will bring.

The announcement relates to MTD for ITSA only. Making Tax Digital for VAT has already been implemented and is demonstrating the benefits to businesses and the tax system of digital ways of working.

Further information

A copy of the Written Ministerial Statement made by Victoria Atkins, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, on 19 December 2022 is available on UK Parliament: Written questions, answers and statements.

Under MTD for ITSA, businesses, self-employed individuals and landlords will keep digital records, and send a quarterly summary of their business income and expenses to HMRC using MTD-compatible software. In response they will receive an estimated tax calculation based on the information provided to help them budget for their tax. At the end of the year, they can add any non-business information and finalise their tax affairs using MTD-compatible software. This will replace the need for a Self Assessment tax return.

GOV.UK guidance on Making Tax Digital for Income Tax will be updated shortly.

Before today’s announcement, MTD for ITSA was mandated from April 2024 for customers with a total gross income over £10,000 from self-employment and property in a tax year, with partnerships mandated from 2025.

DMS Posts, Tax

Penalty points and penalties if you submit your VAT Return late

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From 1 January 2023, you’ll get penalty points if you submit a VAT Return late (including nil payment returns). Find out how points work and how to avoid a £200 penalty.

For VAT accounting periods starting on or after 1 January 2023, late submission penalties apply if you submit your VAT Return late.

The VAT default surcharge is being replaced by new penalties for returns that are submitted late and VAT which is paid late. The way interest is charged is also changing.

These changes affect everyone who submits VAT Returns, including a nil or repayment return. 

How late submission penalties work

You must send a VAT Return by the deadline for your accounting period. Your accounting period is when you need to send a return to HMRC, for example, quarterly.

Late submission penalties work on a points-based system.

For each return you submit late you will receive a penalty point.

Once you’ve reached a penalty point threshold, you’ll receive a £200 penalty and a further £200 penalty for each subsequent late submission while you’re at the threshold.

The penalty point threshold for your accounting period

The penalty point threshold is set by your accounting period. The threshold is the maximum points you can receive.

Accounting periodPenalty points threshold
Annually2
Quarterly4
Monthly5

Penalty example for a business making quarterly returns

A company submits their VAT Return quarterly. This means their penalty point threshold is 4.

They already have 3 penalty points because they submitted 3 previous returns late.

They submit their next return late and get a fourth penalty point. Because they’ve reached the penalty point threshold, they receive a £200 penalty.

The company submits their next return on time. They stay at threshold of 4 penalty points but do not get a £200 penalty.

The company submits their next return late. As they’re still at the penalty point threshold of 4 points, they receive another £200 penalty.

If you use a non-standard accounting period

If you have agreement from HMRC to use non-standard accounting periods, different rules apply.

Accounting periodPenalty points thresholdRules that apply
Over 20 weeks2Annual
Over 8 weeks and no more than 20 weeks4Quarterly
8 weeks or less5Monthly

How changes to your business affect penalty points

Changing your accounting period

If you’ve agreed with HMRC to change how often you submit returns, we will adjust your threshold and penalty points.   

This is how we will adjust your penalty points threshold:

Previous accounting periodPrevious penalty point thresholdNew accounting periodNew penalty point threshold
Annual2Quarterly4
Annual2Monthly5
Quarterly4Annual2
Quarterly4Monthly5
Monthly5Annual2
Monthly5Quarterly4

If you have existing penalty points, this is how we will adjust your penalty points:

Previous accounting periodNew accounting periodPenalty points adjustment
AnnualQuarterly+ 2 points
AnnualMonthly+ 3 points
QuarterlyAnnual– 2 points
QuarterlyMonthly+ 1 point
MonthlyAnnual– 3 points
MonthlyQuarterly-1 point

When you change your accounting period:

  • we’ll set your penalty points to zero if the adjustment gives you a minus figure
  • we will not make an adjustment if you have zero points

You cannot appeal adjustments to your penalty points.  

When you change from a non-standard accounting period to the equivalent standard period, your points will not change.

Non-standard accounting periodEquivalent standard accounting period
Over 20 weeksAnnual
Over 8 weeks and no more than 20 weeksQuarterly
8 weeks or lessMonthly

Taking over a business

If you take over a VAT-registered business as a ‘going concern’ any penalty points built-up by the business will not be transferred to your VAT registration number. This will be the case even if the VAT registration number is transferred from the previous owner to yourself.

Find out more about what ‘going concern’ for VAT means in paragraphs 1.3 and 1.4 of VAT Notice 700/9.

VAT groups and penalty points

If the representative member of a VAT group changes, any penalty points they’ve built-up are transferred to the new representative member.

The VAT groups’ penalty points total does not change if a person:

  • joins the group, even if the joining member had penalty points
  • leaves the group (the leaving member does not take points with them)

VAT Returns not affected

The late submission penalty rules do not apply to your:

  • first VAT return if you’re newly VAT registered
  • final VAT return after you cancel your VAT registration
  • one-off returns that cover a period other than a month, quarter or year

For example, you might make a one-off return covering a four-month period because you changed from submitting quarterly to annually.

Tax

MTD for ITSA Delayed Until 2026

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In a statement made by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Victoria Atkins MP, the timetable for Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self Assessment will once again be delayed.

The mandation of MTD for ITSA is now planned to be introduced from April 2026, with businesses, self-employed individuals, and landlords with income over £50,000 mandated to join first.

An increase in the income threshold from £10,000 to £50,000 is universally welcome, although many continue to question why this is not aligned with the £85,000 VAT threshold or indeed restricted to VAT registered individuals only. For some, the relaxation of the rules do not go far enough to give this programme a fighting chance of success in April 2026 and we may yet be having the same expectation of delay two years from now.

The new £50,000 threshold is only a temporary reprieve. This will be reduced to £30,000 from April 2027 with those below that threshold being kept under review.

Also under review is the fate of partnerships whose inclusion has been deferred from April 2025 to an as yet unknown future date.

The minister also confirmed that the new MTD penalty regime, coming into force for VAT from 1 January 2023, will come into effect from April 2026 for those falling within MTD for ITSA. The Government will also look to apply this same penalty regime to all income tax payers, including those falling outside of MTD for ITSA, although no implementation date was stated for this.

Conspicuous by its absence was any mention of basis period reform and the planned change from the current year basis of taxation to the tax year basis with effect from 6 April 2024. With the transitional year only three months away, it seems that we shall be left with this significant procedural burden that was brought in only to resolve HMRC’s inability to correctly account for basis periods within their MTD for ITSA framework.

Indeed, if we are to see a new Government in office before April 2026 then, rather than witness the long-awaited “death of the tax return” as announced by former Chancellor George Osborne, we may yet see a subsequent Chancellor announce the death of MTD for ITSA which will, certainly in accountancy circles, be widely revered.

DMS Posts, Other

Changes at Companies House: corporate transparency and companies register reform

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The Government is planning the most significant changes to the role and powers of Companies House since the register was first created in 1844. 

The proposed changes are part of a package of reforms to increase corporate transparency, improve business transactions and tackle economic crime which the Government has been consulting on since 2019.

What’s been proposed?

Over the last couple of years, there have been several Government consultations (see Further information below) on the proposed changes. Key proposals include:

  • Identity verification: introducing compulsory identity verification for all directors, People with Significant Control and those filing information on behalf of a company. The Government has proposed that once identity verification has been introduced, all company directors will have to verify their identity with Companies House before they can incorporate and a director’s appointment will not have legal effect until their identity has been verified.
  • Reforms to Companies House powers: Companies House will have stronger powers to query, seek evidence for, amend or remove information and to share it with law enforcement partners when certain conditions are met. Currently, Companies House is required to accept documents which are filed in good faith and place them on the register. One of the most important changes is to give Companies House the power to query information being filed and ask for evidence to support this, where appropriate. The Government issued a further consultation about how this power would work in practice which closed in February.
  • Register of Directors: it is proposed to remove the requirement for companies to keep their own Register of Directors so that the register held by Companies House will become the single, verified source of information for this. The Government is also considering the position on some of the other registers, such as the Register of Secretaries and the Register of People with Significant Control (although it has said it is unlikely to remove the requirement to keep a Register of Members).
  • Protecting personal information: this includes improving the processes for removing personal information from the register, including people’s signatures, the day of date of birth and residential addresses.
  • Company accounts: the Government has consulted on how to improve the way financial information is filed with Companies House. This includes requiring accounts to be delivered digitally and to be fully tagged. It is also proposed that the timescales for filing accounts will be shortened.
  • Ban on corporate directors: the Government legislated in 2015 to ban the use of corporate directors but these provisions were never brought into force. The Government now proposes to implement the ban, but with a ‘principles’ based exemption. This would mean that a company will only be able to appoint a corporate director if all the corporate director’s directors are natural persons whose identities have been verified by Companies House.

Who will the proposals apply to?

It is intended that any entities that are subject to the transparency provisions of the Companies Act 2006 will be caught (including registered companies, LLPs and limited partnerships).

Next steps

As these proposals are so wide-ranging and many will require legislation to implement, the Government has said it intends to publish a comprehensive set of proposals and will proceed to legislate ‘when Parliamentary time allows’. Funding will be required, particularly to implement the major changes to Companies House. However, the Government has indicated that it is committed to reform and we are likely to see at least some of the changes in the next few years.

Further information

The Government’s response to the consultation on corporate transparency and register reform can be found here.

You can also see the links below for the relevant Government consultations (which are now closed):

Current Companies House filing deadlines

The automatic extensions granted by the Corporate Insolvency and Governance Act have now come to an end for filing deadlines that fall after 5 April 2021. The Government had previously extended some deadlines to relieve the burden on businesses during the coronavirus outbreak.

As a reminder, some of the key Companies House filing deadlines are below:

  • First Annual Accounts: 21 months after the date the company is registered with Companies House;
  • Annual Accounts: 9 months after the company’s financial year ends;
  • Confirmation Statement: dated a year after either the date the company was incorporated or the date you filed your last confirmation statement. You have 14 days from the date of the confirmation statement to file it with Companies House;
  • Charges: within 21 days from when the charge is created;
  • Resolutions: all special resolutions and certain ordinary resolutions must be filed at Companies House within 15 days of being passed;
  • Changes to directors and company secretaries, for example new appointments, resignations or changes to their personal details: within 14 days of the change;
  • Changes to the ‘people with significant control’ (PSC) register, or a PSC’s personal details like a new address: within 14 days of the change; and
  • Allotment of shares: within 30 days of issuance.
Budget, PAYE, Tax

NIC Changes

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Employers’ class 1 NIC

The secondary class 1 NIC rates and thresholds (paid by employers) were not altered in the Spring Statement, and the rate is increasing from 13.8% to 15.05% on 6 April 2022. 

For 2022/23 the various secondary class 1 NIC thresholds are:

  Secondary class 1 NIC Thresholds
For most employees the employer pays at 15.05% on wages:
Per week:£175
Per month:£758
Per year:£9,100
If the employee is an apprentice or aged under 21 employer pays class 1 NIC at 15.05% on wages above:
Per week:£967
Per month:£4,189
Per year:£50,270
For new employees working at least 60% of their time in a Freeport site the employer can claim relief from class 1 NIC on wages up to: 
Per week:£481
Per month:£2,083
Per year:£25,000

Employees’ class 1 NIC 

The rates of primary class 1 NIC paid by employees are increasing on 6 April 2022 from 12% to 13.25% and from 2% to 3.25% for the upper rate.

The lower earnings limit (LEL) has not been changed from the proposed level for 2022/23, which will be: £123 per week, £533 per month, £6,396 per year. On earnings between the LEL and the primary threshold, the employee pays class NIC at 0%, thus receives NIC credit for those wages.

The upper earnings limit (UEL) has also not been changed by the Spring Statement, and will stay at the proposed thresholds for 2022/23 of £967 per week, £4,189 per month, £50,270 per year. On earnings above the UEL, the employee will pay class 1 NIC at 3.35% for 2022/23.

The complication introduced by the Spring Statement is that the primary threshold (PT) for class 1 NIC will change part way through the tax year on 6 July 2022. The employee will pay class 1 NIC at 13.25% on earnings between the LEL and the PT for 2022/23.  

Class 1 NIC primary thresholds 6 April to 5 July 2022 6 July 2022 to 5 April 2023 
Per week£190£242
Per month£823£1048
Per year£9,880£12,570

As NIC is paid according to the pay period, and is not cumulative, only nine months of earnings (from July 2022 to March 2023) will benefit from the higher PT.

Company directors tend to use an annual or quarterly earnings period. Those on quarterly pay will use the lower threshold for the first quarter to 5 July 2022, and the higher PT for the remainder of the year. Those on annual earnings period will use a PT of £11,908 for 2022/23 as specified in clause 4(2) of the National Insurance Contributions (Increase of Thresholds) Bill 2022.

Self-employed class 4 

The lower profits limit (LPL), from which class 4 NIC becomes payable, is also increased to align with the personal allowance of £12,570, but over two years. The upper profits limit is frozen at £50,270.

Tax Year Main rate Additional rateLPLUpper profits limit
2022/2310.25%3.25%£11,908£50,270
2023/2410.25%*3.25%*£12,570£50,270

* Including Health and Social Care levy

For 2022/23 the LPL will be £11,908, that is nine months of the increased level, to make it equivalent to the same NIC allowance enjoyed by employees. Although the self-employed individual will pay class 4 NIC at the main rate of 10.25%, which is three percentage points lower than the class 1 NIC paid on the same income band by an employee.  

Self-employed class 2 NIC

The class 2 NIC paid by the self-employed creates a contribution record for the individual, unlike the class 4 NIC, which is a pure tax. 

The class 2 small profits threshold (SPT) will remain in place from April 2022, but the individual will not be liable to pay class 2 NIC until their profits exceed the lower profits threshold for the tax year, which is aligned with the lower profits threshold for class 4 NIC.

Tax year Flat rate per week   Small profits threshold  Lower profits limit 
2022/23£3.15£6,725£11,908 
2023/24TBATBA £12,570

New class 2 NI credit 

Where the individual has annual profits between the SPT and the LPL, they will effectively build up a NI credit for that year, while paying zero class 2 NIC. Note that the taxpayer has to make profits at least equal to the SPT for the year in order to benefit from this class 2 NI credit. 

In order to receive the class 2 NI credit the taxpayer will have to submit a tax return, although if they have no other income in the year they will have no tax to pay. 

The introduction of the class 2 NI credit does not eliminate the need for voluntary class 2 NIC payments. Where the trading profits are less than the SPT the individual may still wish to pay voluntary class 2 NIC in order to maintain their contribution record and qualify for the state pension, as well as for other contributory benefits.