{"id":2275,"date":"2018-08-14T08:57:42","date_gmt":"2018-08-14T07:57:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.accountinginsightnews.co.uk\/?p=2275"},"modified":"2018-08-14T08:57:42","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T07:57:42","slug":"making-tax-digital-iris","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.accountex.co.uk\/insight\/2018\/08\/14\/making-tax-digital-iris\/","title":{"rendered":"Making Tax Digital VAT: is it time to educate clients?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The summer has arrived (it’s started raining!). Government members have retreated to Tuscan villas. School children are enjoying the longest holiday of the year. Parents battle to juggle work and keep their little ones entertained.<\/p>\n

Amid the extraordinary political, social and economic events of the past few months, accountancy professionals are debating the next step in the Making Tax Digital<\/a><\/strong> (MTD) debate. And it seems there is still much to do.<\/p>\n

Research from the Chambers of Commerce<\/a> <\/strong>claimed 24 per cent of firms had never heard of MTD<\/a><\/strong>, which comes into effect next April for VAT. Extrapolate this percentage against the 2.6 million businesses MTD will affect, it\u2019s akin to the population of Bristol having never heard of MTD.<\/p>\n

Absolutely confident of hitting deadline<\/h3>\n

HMRC’s Oliver Fisher, deputy director of Making Tax Digital<\/a> <\/strong>(Business) strategic design and policy, is \u201cabsolutely confident of hitting the April 2019 deadline\u201d for VAT, despite the delay announced last year.<\/p>\n

Brexit continues to add economic uncertainty as businesses are less optimistic and \u2018running out of patience\u2019 according to the BBC. With Westminster having \u2018just\u2019 made it to summer recess, it\u2019s no wonder the accountancy industry is sitting tight before making any decisions.<\/p>\n

At the coal-face<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The world is much different at the industry coal-face. As with other service industries, accountancy practices are looking at ways of automating practices and developing added-value consultancy services in preparation for the digital economy, while spending time trying to engage clients before the looming MTD VAT date in just eight months\u2019 time.<\/p>\n

The balance of business development, and servicing clients is a task for any leader but combined with additional submissions and a lack of enthusiasm from many clients, it\u2019s no wonder progress seems like walking through treacle.<\/p>\n

So where does this melee of controversy leave the accountancy firm and its customers? Is it worth starting the MTD VAT journey now?<\/p>\n

Time to plan<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Regardless of the political or economic outlook, businesses are, and will, continue to trade whatever the outcome. Much as there is a propensity to wait, delaying client education and helping them implement the right tools will only cause widespread client upheaval in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Think about the typical practice calendar for a moment. In July, there was the P11D and Tax Credit deadlines to work on. The schools broke up and holidays got under way, so staff levels started to fall. This pattern will continue throughout August. September will bring corporation tax submissions, which consumes time. Suddenly, it\u2019s October and there is only six months to the MTD VAT go-live date.<\/p>\n

However, with a little strategic thinking, it is possible to manage day-to-day business and client journeys as we move to a digital economy. There are four steps to ensuring clients are ready for MTD VAT; analysing the client base, educating clients, consulting on bookkeeping tools and training.<\/p>\n

The MTD VAT journey<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s look at a fictional example: a practice has 500 clients and VAT returns are needed for half of this client base. The next step is to look at the quarterly VAT end dates and the way the practice (or client) submits VAT returns. This data mining process is completed by those not on holiday in the next few months. By the end of the summer, the practice has identified 250 clients to be educated and trained.<\/p>\n

Back from the holiday season and the practice now has the intelligence to educate clients on the changes to MTD VAT. If these conversations are split between two people, there are just over three client calls to make each working day over two months. Of course, these calls are not a two-minute job, but there is another opportunity when calling clients: relationships are built, and practices may find there is an opportunity for additional advice or services.<\/p>\n

IRIS and making tax digital<\/h3>\n

December is traditionally the busy season for tax returns, so it\u2019s worth considering different forms of communication to offer bookkeeping solutions. Email campaigns, hosting webinars, or organising a seminar will raise the awareness of the deadline and convey options for consideration.<\/p>\n

By the end of the calendar year, the client base has been educated, advised and decided which software it will use.<\/p>\n

From February 2019, the practice embarks on training clients, guiding them through the bookkeeping process and ironing out any errors before the April deadline.<\/p>\n

The choice is how we do it<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Of course, the theory is easy to read, and practices should expect challenges along the way. But as the industry progresses through this once-in-a-generation change, the opportunity to provide traditional assurance and core compliance services though integrated, efficient automated processes and workflows shouldn\u2019t be a burden. It\u2019s an opportunity to transform services, improve client engagement and help everyone thrive in the digital economy.<\/p>\n

Starting the MTD VAT journey with clients now isn\u2019t a choice. The choice is how we do it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The summer has arrived (it’s started raining!). Government members have retreated to Tuscan villas. School children are enjoying the longest holiday of the year. Parents battle to juggle work and keep their little ones entertained. Amid the extraordinary political, social and economic events of the past few months, accountancy professionals are debating the next step […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2282,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[27,157,18,10,117,72,51],"class_list":{"0":"post-2275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blogs","8":"tag-accounting-software","9":"tag-daily-insight","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-hmrc","12":"tag-iris","13":"tag-making-tax-digital","14":"tag-vat"},"yoast_head":"\nMaking Tax Digital VAT: is it time to educate clients? - Accounting Insight News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Today's Daily Insight is on MTD and it's brought to you by Nick Gregory, chief product and marketing officer at accounting software group IRIS\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.accountex.co.uk\/insight\/2018\/08\/14\/making-tax-digital-iris\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Making Tax Digital VAT: is it time to educate clients? 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