Poll: Members come to terms with iXBRL
A comparative poll reveals that AccountingWEB.co.uk members are getting to grips with the new regime for electronic Corporation Tax return submissions.
More than three-quarters of respondents to our latest online poll are aware of what iXBRL is and have started preparations for the transition to mandatory electronic CT filing from next April.
Only 7% of AccountingWEB.co.uk members “have absolutely no idea what this poll is about”. This figure is a marked contrast to the results of a similar poll in 2009, when 21% of respondents gave the same response.
In the 2009 survey, 74% of respondents chose options that expressed hostility or lack of awareness about the new requirements, which will mean they have to format accounts and CT computations in the iXBRL format before submitting them online to HRMC.
Nearly a quarter of respondents confessed to being “not at all prepared” for iXBRL in the autumn of 2009, compared to 17% in 2010.
A concerted education campaign from HMRC and the tax software industry has made a noticeable difference. The biggest iXBRL constituency in 2010 are the 38% who say, “My software supplier is taking care of it” –an option that was added this year on the suggestion of an AccountingWEB member.
As well as finding practical solutions to the iXBRL challenge, overt hostility has also diminished. The 29% who thought mandatory iXBRL filing was HMRC’s “stupidest idea yet” in 2009 dropped to just 5% in 2010 who responded, “I suppose I'll have to comply, but still think it's stupid.”
That’s not to say there still aren’t issues that need resolving. Back in autumn 2009, just 9% of respondents raised concerns about costs and practicalities they had encountered while laying the groundwork for the transition. This time around, 28% chose that option.
The latest figures are not definitive. If you disagree with these conclusions, there’s still an opportunity to send a message to HMRC by taking part in our online iXBRL poll.
If you would like to find out more about the Corporation Tax efiling requirements and tools for preparing electronic submissions, there’s still time to get along to HRMC’s iXBRL event in Birmingham on Wednesday 3 November.
iXBRL
Accountants both in practice and in industry are understandably worried about iXBRL. Their main focus is on what method to use for tagging (or linking) their accounts to the iXBRL taxonomies specified by HMRC and Companies House.
As such, accounts production software vendors are responding to this by adding tagging functionality to their systems, with a large number of providers offering software that adds tags to existing MS Word and Excel documents. However, these are only short term fixes. Whilst they enable accountants to jump over the immediate hurdle of iXBRL reporting, they do nothing to bring improved efficiency and lower the costs of existing work processes. In reality, few vendors are doing anything more than just bolting iXBRL capabilities onto their existing products and using it as a means to levy increased software fees from their customers. When implemented properly, iXBRL provides new opportunities for shortening processes and eliminating duplication. By combining accounting and final accounts production, the bookkeeping that a company does during its financial year becomes the source for all reporting - from cashflow and credit management through to final accounts. This brings several benefits, for instance: - Central location for source data- Updates during final accounts preparation automatically reflected in the source accounts- Audit processes have ready access to the source transactions.
With this in mind the potential savings for accountants are significant as the unnecessary cost associated with having separate accounting and accounts production software is eliminated. Mark DaviesUK Country ManagerTwinfield www.twinfield.co.uk