Super Bowl raises the bar for MTD ITSA ad campaign
Now that Super Bowl adverts resemble a Hollywood blockbuster, HMRC will have to think big if the tax office wants MTD ITSA to cut through into the mainstream.
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Richard is the editor of AccountingWEB. If you have any comments or suggestions for us get in touch.
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"it’s time for the return of Hector the tax inspector. "
It is a great idea but probably totally unacceptable in our world of anti-stereotypes and myriad other woke ideas. I also understand that there are TV Channels out there other than BBC & ITV and something called social media (which seems anything but social) ...... who would have thought it?
An amusing article however, Richard, and I do think Hector DID make it a lot easier to market Self Assessment. He was always on the top of our Christmas Tree for many years and really was a brilliant idea.
If you have had the misfortunate to be tortured by commercial radio there is all ready wall to wall adverts packed with misinformation about the dubious benefits of software.
Far from doing "a great job in publicising the looming MTD rollout" they have misinformed implying that their software is mandatory for many years (as a result many accountants seem to think excel is not permitted, let along the public) scare mongered about the speed to the roll out, and promoted highly unlikely scenarios regarding the ability of software to turn people into amazing bookkeepers by just waving your phone at some paperwork.
As a result we have had a number of clients misled into buying unsuitable software which they cant use. Only 2 weeks ago I junked a whole year of accounting for a client in Quickbooks as it was quicker to do it from the bank statements than unpick their ungodly mess.
Software in the right hands, for the right business is fantastic. But in the wrong hands for the wrong business its a disaster.
The fact the software houses can afford such glitzy advertising underlines how expensive it is.
I had a 17.30 appointment with a new client
Has quickbooks for a loss making company
Never used quickbooks before and has spent so much time trying to sort out the errors
All capital equipment on the profit and loss
In a hurry as despite submitting accounts to companies house successfully (but late) twice using the companies house type your figures here system he just could not get the accounts submitted to HMRC
Thus I need to submit 3 late CT600s
We agreed print the bank statements and add purpose of all payments in black ink
He is coming in Saturday midday with the newly created records and a list of the miles driven
Quite enjoyed the read and the video
But this is Britain
David Beckham's left foot and all that
So it is Hugh Grant rescuing the lovely Martine McCutcheon
With Billy Mack playing on the computer screen after being No 1 at Christmas
Hector was a liar, claiming that tax would become leaner, and simpler. In 1995 the yellow book was 3,196 pages. In 20/21 it was 18,348 pages.
I don't call that leaner or simpler.
When I started out in 1970, Butterworths was about 800 pages and I read the whole lot ! Pity the poor tax students today.
Maybe he was just a great big dreamy old Hector
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8h2-OuRdUM
When I first started out in practice our office had a large Hector lit up sign outside, the story went that the local Inland Revenue office had complained as they thought people would confuse us with them but the practice owner at the time wrote back to say that it wasn't Hector it was his older brother Hubert. The sign stayed even after Hector retired.
There is now a clear and present danger that our supremely talented editor: Richard Hattersley, will be head-hunted by the ad agency who is tasked with designing the HMRC comms package for MTD ITSA.
I just wish that HMRC would pull its collective finger out and start its comms on MTD ITSA, as relying on software companies and the professional bodies to do all the running on this just won't work. Over 4 million taxpayers need to understand their new obligations to submit figures to HMRC on 6 occassions for each tax year, in place of the simple: "send in your tax return by 31 Jan " message. Its not going to be an easy sell at all.
I have no idea, but I understand that its not going to be soon, although the professional bodies have been pushing hard for an answer on this.
And when, Rebecca, do you think they are going to start with the publicity campaign?
A good question, but as they do not seem to have the resources or the competence, my guess is NEVER!
Anyone who dips into the Agent Forum will have noticed the admission from HMRC this week that they have to apply for funding to fix bugs in their own software. There's no way they'll get funding to raise awareness of MTD. I reckon they've probably blown the whole MTD budget already and for what? 9 participants in the pilot. This must be the highest waste of money per participant in HMRC history.A good question, but as they do not seem to have the resources or the competence, my guess is NEVER!
HMRC - hey taxpayer you know you have to submit once per annum now.......well we've done a super TV advert and the HMRC staff had great fun having meetings about it, discussing it, zoom meetings galore and making it.
We only spent £12M making it and well we're making the tax system easier.
You've only got to submit something 6 times per annum....I know you only do it once a year now but we'll be able to give you an estimate of your tax that is totally incorrect and bears no relation to what you should actually be paying.
Also, to make your life really easy you can't continue to do your books as you always have.... you have got to use some software you've never used before.
Taxpayer to HMRC - I've ceasing trading.......(to himself -MTD is too hard ... I'll just not bother submitting anything and carry on as before.....HMRC wrote off £4.3Bn in BBL's so I reckon I have more chance of winning the lottery than HMRC catching up with me and if they do I'll just go bankrupt).
HMRC to Government in a few years explaining why tax receipts are down and there are hundreds of thousands less self employed and landlords......well we didn't anticipate that people would think it's all too hard but hey........didn't we made a great TV advert.
And there they are "Porcus" (latin) all lined up on the runway. Engines revving up. Emblazoned in their new NFL influenced logo H.M.R.C. Ready for take off. You couldn't make this up if you tried. If you didn't laugh you would cry. Are Civil Servants THAT out of touch with reality now. Three years ago or more (it seems like a lifetime) I asked for CS to go and work with small/medium sized self employed traders and companies and see the REAL challenges of what HMRC wish to impose. Anyone like to hazard a guess as to how many they consulted? All I hear is that they talk to software companies and the big four. Try finding an MP interested enough to enquire. It seems only the House of Lords actually cared about what will happen to small businesses.
As MTD will be so easy, and so helpful, why restrict it to those who do tax returns. Give everyone the benefits, make everyone have a tax account and submit their information 6 times a year. Nurses will be able to see how their flat rate expenses claim is going, civil servants will be able to calculate how much the office parties will cost them, those working from home can compare their gas bills to their tax relief, everyone will be better off. And HMRC can code everyone 0T -no refunds until all your submissions are up to date - should boost the government coffers. What a fantastic benefit for everyone.
"As MTD will be so easy, and so helpful, why restrict it to those who do tax returns"
If my memory serves me well, the initial plan for Self-Assessment was that everyone would submit a Return, which is a fairly logical approach to ensure everyone's taxes were always correct and up to date. This was soon kicked out, however, when someone pointed out that H M Inland Revenue did not have the resources to process 40+ million Tax Returns each year.
These were the same sort of ambitious ideas that there are for MTD only with Self Assessment there was a great deal more pragmatism involved which limited the scope of the project to the resources available.
I remember the transition to SA: loads of Working Together meetings with HMRC staff, workshops, manuals and we were even given a named contact in our local tax office who took ownership of every SA issue. But most of all, SA was designed by tax people who had practical experience of dealing with taxpayers (they were taxpayers back then) so knew what could realistically be expected of them. So it worked. In contrast, MTD is designed by IT people who seem to know nothing of tax and certainly have had not contact with "customers". The medium of submission of MTD is digital and it is the medium of submission that is driving MTD. Back in 1996 the medium of submission of SA was paper. Image what SA would be like if it was driven by the medium of submission (paper). No way in 1996 would HMRC have asked their printers to design SA. So why in 2022 does HMRC ask IT people to design MTD? There's one great advantage of letting the IT people lead, it will never work so will never happen.
So why in 2022 does HMRC ask IT people to design MTD? There's one great advantage of letting the IT people lead, it will never work so will never happen.
"At first I hoped that such a technically unsound project would collapse but I soon realized it was doomed to success. Almost anything in software can be implemented, sold, and even used given enough determination. There is nothing a mere scientist can say that will stand against the flood of a hundred million dollars. But there is one quality that cannot be purchased in this way — and that is reliability. The price of reliability is the pursuit of the utmost simplicity. It is a price which the very rich find most hard to pay."
C. A. R. H o a r e, 1980 ACM Turing Award Lecture
"........it will never work so will never happen."
But how much stress, worry, anxiety, angst, work, preparation and penalties, will we have to go through before HMRC admits defeat. Even if they pull the plug or drastically reduce the scope at the eleventh hour, we will have gone through the mill nonetheless, and some of us will have taken a possibly irreversible decision to retire.
Agreed Geoff. As soon as George Osbourne announced the end of the Tax Return I knew it was not going to pan out how he envisaged and that on that journey we would have years and years of stress. I know loads who have retired or left the profession and no doubt many more will. And where is George Osbourne today? It seems so unjust that he can make an announcement that causes so much hassle and anxiety yet he was able to walk away from it.
Anyone else tried reporting Intuit Quickbooks to Advertising Standards?
I tried on the grounds of them being misleading and untruthful.
My attempt failed because I was deemed to have a professional relationship with them.
When QB started the TV adverts I was impressed with the receipt capture feature advertised for the mobile app so I downloaded it but discovered a problem: at the time the receipt capture app was only available in the self-employed version of QB and that version did not handle VAT. Yet the QB adverts were also promoting the product for MTD. So the receipt capture was not available to us. I met our QB rep a few days later and complained that the adverts were misleading. The rep told me they weren't because there were two adverts advertising two different products: the receipt-capture advert did not mention MTD and the MTD advert did not mention receipt-capture. And he was right. So though me and I guess most viewers thought both features were part of the same product, they weren't. Was QB intentionally giving a false impression? No doubt.
Anyone else tried reporting Intuit Quickbooks to Advertising Standards?
I tried on the grounds of them being misleading and untruthful.
My attempt failed because I was deemed to have a professional relationship with them.
"What about if I mess up and go to tax jail?"
Who came up with that line, and who in Quickbooks approved it?