Is VAT simplification still on the government agenda?
Neil Warren examines the OTS status update on its ‘route to VAT simplification’ report and asks what, if anything, has changed in the two years since the paper was published?
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You raise what seems to me to be the nub of all this 'OTS' stuff.
I was peripherally involved with OTS in its early days - and my distinct impression was that all the effort was into streamlining the flow of cash into the coffers by looking at the collection processes as opposed to actually engendering a sensible and consistent set of tax rules.
The OTS is populated by 'experts', whose bread and butter depends on the inscrutability - what we need is dullards - and when they can operate it then simplification will have occurred.
I think even 16.5% shouldn't really be allowed to be used without a mandatory *(really 19.8% folks) comment afterwards.
I guess that would be a simple way to kill the flat rate immediately by introducing a 17.5% flat rate *(really 21% folks) for all business categories.
The only businesses that would then continue to use the flat rate are the ones that have wrongly applied the flat rate to the net sales figure for the last 10-15 years - giving hmrc a brucie bonus of the easy identification of those numpties with the ability to get some nice backdated vat and associated penalties and interest.
Question for the day without checking or doing calculations can anyone actually remember the vat fraction for the old 17.5% vat rate- clue it's not 3/23 !
What must be appreciated is that in Treasury speak simplification means make it more complicated so that no-one can understand it. It is a sort of reverse language game.
Simplify regulations - translates to 'make more regulations'
Simplify VAT returns - translates to 'make it more difficult for all the little people so that the VAT office can do nothing and wait to be able to interrogate the taxpayers records'
Big Brother will definitely be watching you.
Only consolation is that if they are delving into cloud based bookkeeping systems many clients are so confused by the wealth of choices that they get a lot wrong so HMRC will have their time cut out understanding what is going on. Isn't progress absolutely wonderful?
Retirement is really beginning to look good - preferably before MTD for Income Tax appears. Given the b***s ups with MTD for VAT and the waste of time trying to get people to work effective systems I should think that the wasted time on MTD for IT will achieve a recession all on its own.
What did they used to say - If it ain't broke - don't fix it!
But it's useless trying to talk to Politicians and Civil Servants as most of them are so insulated from the real world that they just cannot see reality under their noses.
Sorry for the rant!