I put a new electronic till in a pub 12 years ago, it was possible to edit the audit trail if you were an administrator and rooted around a bit. This is nothing new. All I see is HMRC picking on small businesses yet again. The simplest way to not record sales is to not put them through the till, void or cancel them if you already have them in the till or use another till for cash takings only. Editing that audit trail is probably the last thing you would do and is probably no different to any accounting software if you know how. I did see a similar till to the one I installed in another place and the staff added up what they thought in their heads and then threw the cash in the till without pressing any buttons.
I was just wondering about those poor trainees who have just started training, is there going to be anything for them to do? Has anyone told them? What with the current 70,000 plus special advisors, which we are expected to become instead of actually being Accountants and Tax Advisors, is there enough to go around. I tried branching out into business advice but no one was interested if they had to pay for it.
And some people still think MTD is a good idea.... I am still getting emails from Alison Walsh, Director of Digital or whatever encouraging me to learn how to do all the things myself which accountants are paid to do with all their years of training, knowledge and expertise. And the only reason I can see for MTD is missing trader reconciliations to look for under declared VAT.
For some reason HMRC keep sending me invitations to webinars and so on concerning educating me about various topics such as which expenses are allowable for tax deduction, what expense can I claim if I use my own car etc. etc. I don't know why HMRC have taken on this task of educating taxpayers as whatever they do the tax payer will still not understand it. So to say low income taxpayers are left in the lurch is not true. What I would like to know is why HMRC are spending money on this programme? I also hate to keep going on about MTD but when I last looked at one of their approved software packages it had a menu option of estimate my tax. So it's not going to do it properly, I suppose we should be grateful that they have at least recognised its limitations. Can HMRC answer the question "Is an estimate of the tax payable now an acceptable figure using one of their approved software packages".
Cost analysis small trader, uses Nokia phone no smart phone or broad band etc.
Laptop £400
Printer scanner £100
Software £150 min for MTD plus for upgrades, maintenance
My time helping when they get stuck £200
Cloud storage £ no idea
Broadband fees £32.99 per month plus £30 connection fee plus line rental £17.99 per month
Cables, mouse etc £20
Microsoft office £200
Windows 10 say £60
So for someone who does not already do all this, this is the implication. And then they have to pay me to sort out the mess, so how does this save money? This is also less efficient than getting me to do it all for them. And it would all be allowable for tax, ha
My answers
I think you'll find they already do. but like most things there's always a back door.
I put a new electronic till in a pub 12 years ago, it was possible to edit the audit trail if you were an administrator and rooted around a bit. This is nothing new. All I see is HMRC picking on small businesses yet again. The simplest way to not record sales is to not put them through the till, void or cancel them if you already have them in the till or use another till for cash takings only. Editing that audit trail is probably the last thing you would do and is probably no different to any accounting software if you know how. I did see a similar till to the one I installed in another place and the staff added up what they thought in their heads and then threw the cash in the till without pressing any buttons.
I was just wondering about Tax... You know what we all have to pay!
I was just wondering about those poor trainees who have just started training, is there going to be anything for them to do? Has anyone told them? What with the current 70,000 plus special advisors, which we are expected to become instead of actually being Accountants and Tax Advisors, is there enough to go around. I tried branching out into business advice but no one was interested if they had to pay for it.
And some people still think MTD is a good idea.... I am still getting emails from Alison Walsh, Director of Digital or whatever encouraging me to learn how to do all the things myself which accountants are paid to do with all their years of training, knowledge and expertise. And the only reason I can see for MTD is missing trader reconciliations to look for under declared VAT.
And another thing, some peoples smart phones don't have the spare capacity to run a big app.
So now we all become software salesmen, I don't see how this is an advance. Accountants selling software isn't the answer to anything.
For some reason HMRC keep sending me invitations to webinars and so on concerning educating me about various topics such as which expenses are allowable for tax deduction, what expense can I claim if I use my own car etc. etc. I don't know why HMRC have taken on this task of educating taxpayers as whatever they do the tax payer will still not understand it. So to say low income taxpayers are left in the lurch is not true. What I would like to know is why HMRC are spending money on this programme? I also hate to keep going on about MTD but when I last looked at one of their approved software packages it had a menu option of estimate my tax. So it's not going to do it properly, I suppose we should be grateful that they have at least recognised its limitations. Can HMRC answer the question "Is an estimate of the tax payable now an acceptable figure using one of their approved software packages".
HMRC is making it a condition that the clients do it themselves, ie trying to exclude us agents from the whole process.
Cost analysis small trader, uses Nokia phone no smart phone or broad band etc.
Laptop £400
Printer scanner £100
Software £150 min for MTD plus for upgrades, maintenance
My time helping when they get stuck £200
Cloud storage £ no idea
Broadband fees £32.99 per month plus £30 connection fee plus line rental £17.99 per month
Cables, mouse etc £20
Microsoft office £200
Windows 10 say £60
So for someone who does not already do all this, this is the implication. And then they have to pay me to sort out the mess, so how does this save money? This is also less efficient than getting me to do it all for them. And it would all be allowable for tax, ha