Gear up for Revenue's online tax revolution
For many years now HM Revenue & Customs and other business organisations have been encouraging us to file returns online. As we start the new decade we are approaching the time when getting to grips with online filing becomes a necessity. The Revenue guidance itself says that “HM Revenue and Customs aim for universal electronic filing of Tax Returns by businesses and IT literate individuals by 2012.” So by the time we start hosting the Olympics, businesses will need to be filing online and paying most taxes electronically too.
If you are in business you will be aware that PAYE returns were the first to start the transition to online as businesses have been slowly phased into filing PAYE returns online. Ellie Groves, a tax consultant at Morris Owen Chartered Accountants adds “for VAT and Corporation tax the Revenue have taken a more direct approach and have set a switch over date by which most businesses will be required to both file and pay tax electronically.”
VAT is the first of these to make online filing compulsory. From April 2010 all VAT registered businesses with turnover of £100,000 or more and all newly registered VAT businesses will need to file their VAT returns and pay any liabilities electronically. Ellie goes on to say that “at this point it is worth highlighting that there are advantages to this; tax becomes due 7 days later compared to if you were paying by cheque and an electronic acknowledgement gives you assurance that the return has been delivered.”
Closely following on VATs heals are the Corporation Tax returns which become compulsory from April 2011. “Unlike the VAT system which does not require any new software or changes to existing systems, businesses need to be in mind that the Corporation Tax return will require a specific software standard for accounts and computations” Ellie added.
Given the penalties that can be imposed if returns are not filed online, now is definitely the time to check your business is ready for the Revenue’s online revolution.
This article originally appeared in the Swindon Advertiser on the 25 February 2010
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