Preparations for mandatory online filing of Corporation Tax accounts and computations in the iXBRL format are becoming increasingly intense and will feature in an HMRC briefing at the Sage World event in Telford next week.
The event is designed as a self-help master class for small businesses, with advice and insights from business personalities such as Karren Brady, "king of shaves" Will King and networking expert Andy Lopata, but it will also include briefings from HMRC customer advisers on online VAT and Corporation Tax.
From last April VAT went online for all businesses and has thrown up a number of issues with client compliance and a new penalty regime. But the task facing businesses and their advisers next April is even more daunting, as the move to iXBRL-based submissions for Corporation Tax computations and accounts will put much more strain on accounting departments.
But the key message from HMRC throughout its five-year online drive is that it is not trying to set up new hurdles to trip up and penalise businesses. Instead it is embracing the web to save taxpayers money and provide a more efficient service to its so-called customers.
If HMRC’s staff do not need to spend huge amounts of their working lives inputting and checking data from tax returns, they spend less time asking pointless questions and devote more effort to resolving things that really matter, the department argues. It is also taking a soft landing approach to enforcement and rather than coming down hard on those who get online submissions wrong in the first two years, HMRC officials vowed to work with them to resolve problems.
The face-to-face meetings at Sage World are part of HMRC’s educational drive, which will also take in Corporation Tax events in Glasgow on 15 September and Birmingham on 3 November.
For Sage’s part, it has been labouring for more than two years to build iXBRL compatibility into its tax and practice suite. In a recent online workshop with AccountingWEB.co.uk members, Sage’s Darren Ingles and Tim Hervey offered practical suggestions about how businesses and accountants could prepare for the transition to iXBRL.
It will be possible for small, uncomplicated businesses to use HMRC’s own iXBRL submission tool, which operates in a similar fashion to Company House’s efiling mechanism for abbreviated accounts. And those who want to continue producing their annual accounts with spreadsheets and word processors will be able to continue to do so – as long as they find a way to “tag” those accounts with iXBRL labels, explained Ingles.
But software with built-in tagging is likely to provide a much more efficient long-term solution, he argued. “If you do not intend on using software to prepare the accounts, then it would be wise to ensure that significant time allocation is added to any job as the manual tagging does take significant time… The tagging of accounts is by no means an administrative task. It is imperative that you know what you are doing otherwise you could quickly find yourself in difficulty.”
Tim Hervey added, “Sage’s CT iXBRL solution means that your everyday work flow and processes should not need to change, you’ll produce the tax computation in the normal way and then during online filing process the computation will be tagged partly automatically and partly using a tagging wizard to allow you to choose what to tag - the choice generally being in respect of amounts where the user has defined captions for those amounts. We have tried to keep you away from any pain.”
Sage World 2010 is a free event for business owners, directors and entrepreneurs offering practical advice on all aspects of maintaining and growing a business, on 8–9 September at The International Centre in Telford. To find out more about the event and reserve your free ticket, visit www.sageworld2010.co.uk/
More iXBRL resources
For a hands-on look at some of the available iXBRL-compatible applications, including those that integrate CT600 and accounts production, pay a visit to HMRC's iXBRL exhibition at Hampden Park, Glasgow on 15 September. Also see:
iXBRL coverage and Expert Guides on AccountingWEB.co.uk
HMRC CT Online filing pages, featuring software demonstrator and recognised products
CCH iXBRL website
Digita iXBRL website and whitepaper
IRIS iXBRL whitepaper
Keytime iXBRL guide - Everything the practitioner needs to know
Sage iXBRL website and AccountingWEB article Preparing for iXBRL
XBRL International - UK reference site