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It is not a question of "Trust".
Through this first generation of Digital users, as with children we believed in the magic, and the excitement.
This was OK.
I am sure the inventor of the first stone axe was really excited at his new thingy. That is until the head fell off and broke his toe.
These digital things are nevertheless machines. As with all machines they will go wrong. Only God is infallible. The devil invented computers.
So, if I go out on a boat, I wear a life jacket, carry a flare, and keep those onshore informed. I do not board airplanes unless I am satisfied about their maintenance and safety record. Even though my first trip was in 1967, I still insure every time.
Why?
because in my universe good things are optional but [***] is certain.
For some psychological reason ordinary quite sane persons ignore those eternal lessons.
I am sure that all of us who read this note are aware how to keep ourselves digitally safe.
Sadly I will make a safe bet that at least 50% of us (me included) still behave as if fairies at the bottom of the garden are more likely than "My" IT [***] up.
I think this technology is a given and we either embrace it or die. Ultimately I am a small practice but have most clients already on a suitable platform and so MTD has become just a matter of doing the HMRC thing and telling QuickBooks the client is now on MTD. In terms of trusting these new processes I guess that I am one of the lucky ones in that having learned all this using a paper and pen I understand what it should be doing and have an insight into the answers provided.
Those who grow up on these things may not understand the process from this number t that one and so will less easily spot when things go wrong - especially if the training doesn't cover it (and it should).
The truth is that this has been a steady process from the early 90's onward. We had spreadsheets rather than squared paper. We got tax return software, then HMRC invited us to submit online wth ELS. Back then the forums were indignant with people saying why should we help HMRC why should we do this for them? The luddites often missed the fact that repayments came more quickly, that tax returns hit HMRC as I had sent not with errors added by HMRC inputters. Would anyone really want to go back to printing out tax returns and posting them to HMRC? If so is that best for your clients?
The issue is that for those who have refused as much of this as possible the leap is great to catch up. Most of these things bring pluses as well as minuses. All my VAT reg clients are on accounting software (whether they know it or not). I do their stuff quarterly and their accounts are the easiest to do at their year end. So roll on full MTD as my goal is an easier life. All done quarterly - if I'm doing everyone each quarter I will have time as I will not be doing the whole annual accounts for anyone. Each quarter will be balanced up and OK. So then just the clever bit from bookkeeping to annual accounts to do.
I'm not suggesting it's all rosy as HMRC IT is poor - but as I don't have to make software decisions and move people onto a suitable platform I can deal with the issues that present. Good accounting software has been around for a very long time. MTD was mooted long enough ago that we should all have realised we will need to do something and that spreadsheets won't do anymore.
So for me I'll adopt the tech I think is useful and serves me and my clients. Clients who like that we can share their accounting data. that I can see all their invoices in their software without them having to courier their files to me, where they can be up to date and get real business value from their data as we can report on last week as the invoices have come through receipt bank and the bank feed has picked up a lot of the rest or that their websales are in their accounts directly via an online link. HMRC want what? - we had that covered last year....
Unfortunately this article tells us nothing we don't already know. The problem in any industry is that technology is moving ahead far too fast and (yes I'll say it again for new readers) we are heading for a technological disaster with the gap between "high techies" and "low techies" ever widening, but it's also coming into everyday life . I watch a program called click and, although really interesting, it's sometimes very frightening.
Unfortunately we can't keep things on the table because most of the big boys, even our Government insist on the new technology being mandatory. There are certain restaurants and pubs that only handle new tech. MTD is an absolute classic. To most of us, digital input is routine, but not to all. So why should these ordinary people be made to adopt. You don't have to drive a car if you don't want to, so why should all this new tech be mandatory? What's so special about it? Oh yes, Government and Financial Institutions have access to all our movements etc. A big sales gimmick that will come crashing down.