HMRC accounts

Thanks for the link, I was going to do a search but you beat me to it.

IIUC the point of 'approved' SW is that HMRC will (only) accept accounts in the format that these tools provide. I would like to learn more, for sure.

J^n

I with my fellow director, were doing company taxes, which included the employment I mentioned above, but the company was separate from my personal return, obviously ... it was the changeover period for me and it crossed tax-years.

Correct, but the accounts package that I use will submit electronic returns for company or self-employed (i.e self-assesment) which could include payroll if I were to employ someone.

I don't know if HMRC has caught up yet, but I used a management company that paid me £5000 a year and the rest was paid in dividends.

Coincidentally, less than 24hrs after I asked the question, The Daily Telegraph seems to have answered it for me:

Self-employed sole traders are also going to have to use proprietary software to submit quarterly accounts to HMRC from next year, under the Making Tax Digital for Income Tax system.

Thanks, I wasn't aware of that. It seems a nightmare for those whose idea of accounting is to throw a pile of receipts at an accountant once a year. It assumes the trader is doing their own accounts, which many aren't.

Also sole traderness is kind of fuzzy. If I do some odd jobs and get paid for them, is that self employed income or a sole trader? It seems the threshold will be £50k falling to £20k by 2028, so I suppose doers of odd jobs won't be covered - for now anyway.

Theo

Gosh, that is a poorly-written article.

The point I don't read about is security. I don't want to reveal my affairs to anyone else than HMRC. Being forced to reveal it to some third party is just wrong. I also want to be able to see HMRC's real-time computation - as one can now.

Oh come on now, it is the Telegraph after all. Nobody who can actually write works there any more. I suppose a bit like someone who claims to read Playboy magazine for the editorials, I will say that I only read the Telegraph because there are sometimes news stories that other papers don't cover at all or don't cover well but secretly I'm addicted to the car-crash journalism.

Nick

Do you mean a website that is a bridge between your Excel spreadsheet and HMRC?

I hope something turns up.

That is simply not true. You are confusing it with the Daily Express

Yes, it is a long time since Tio Pepe was always on the bottle.

I agree. Since I retired almost 2 years ago, I've been working on a 'Sole Trader' basis doing odd jobs. The 50k threshold won't bother me, but the 20k one possibly might (though by 2028 I think Mrs C will have had enough of me working !)

If it's going to be a low as 20k, it's getting into the same ball park (for some !) of savings interest, so will that need 'software' too ?

Banks already report savings interest directly to HMRC, so I don't think it needs anything on the customer end.

For the sole trader I suppose it's another reason to use one of those platforms that take care of quotes, invoices, payments etc like Xero or Tradify. For which they'll take their sweet monthly fee.

Theo

Apropos of nothing, Russian tax authorities can now drain their citizens bank accounts without any authorisation and entirely as needed. Rachel Thieves looks on with envy...