The government have announced that they would like to introduce new quarterly tax returns for individuals and businesses. The idea is to scrap the annual returns that are currently in place and split them down in to quarterly returns. The government have stated that they wish to make tax returns completely digital by 2020 and allow businesses and individuals to see more recent up to date figures.
This recent announcement has come as a bit of a surprise to many and has not been widely welcomed. Businesses are annoyed assuming that they will have to pay more accountancy fees due to returns needed on a more regular basis and many sole traders are worried about finding the time to fit in another 2 returns during the tax year.
The government have stated that they will be introducing new software that will automatically upload to HMRC to eliminate parts of the tax return process and there will be free versions of this software available to those that wish to use it.