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Written question asked by Lord Harris of Haringey (Labour) on Wednesday, 31 October 2018, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 14 November 2018. It was answered by Lord Bates (Conservative) on Wednesday, 14 November 2018 on behalf of the Treasury.

VAT: Electronic Government

Question

To ask Her Majesty's Government which commercial software available to small businesses using the VAT Flat-Rate Scheme are compliant with Making Tax Digital; and what are the costs of such software to those small businesses.

Answer

The latest published statistics show that in the last year for which figures are available (2016-17), there were 358,270 businesses operating the VAT Flat Rate Scheme (FRS).

There is no separate impact assessment relating to businesses participating in the FRS. An overall Impact Assessment was published on 1 December 2017.

MTD is intended to help businesses meet their tax obligations as simply as possible, regardless of whether they operate standard or specialist schemes. While HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) cannot recommend specific software products, they have published details of compatible software on GOV.uk.

This will be updated regularly as more MTD software products become available. HMRC has also published guidance within its recent VAT Notice 7/22 on GOV.UK on how to account for the FRS on software that does not have it as a feature.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL11160
Session
2017-19
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Software Costs Small businesses VAT Electronic government
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk