I'm 60 next year. In an ideal world I would be looking to work a few hours less a week not twice as many. In terms of the extra office hours required I currently see MTD as an impossible task for me and my staff to cope with. So do I ditch some clients and hope to up fees to others to make up the difference or just ditch them all and put my feet up? The latter is looking the most appealing as dealing with MTD will be a nightmare regardless.
"I have been assured by Ministers that bureaucratic form-filling will be eradicated, and the information HMRC needs will be automatically uploaded to the digital accounts."
God doesn't that sound easy. Why am I worrying. Oh yes, its the bit they ignore about getting the information in to a format that can be uploaded from!
It smacks a little of phishing to me. As you suggest, business and personal records are intertwined as there is only one bank account and they have the statements but everything is on there from click and collect shopping bills to payments for utilities, mortgage etc as well as credit card totals each month for other stuff. We could analyse his credit card bills, if he still has them, guess what he bought at Asda and guess what he did with the cash withdrawals but the amount of detail they are requesting does not seem relevant. There are no apparent gaps which almost looks like the problem!
Ignoring the cost issue on the basis that if you have to, say, double your fee so will your competitor and consequently clients remain on board but what about the time factor. Potentially every firm of accountants in the country has perhaps two or three times the work load - how will that work? It's easy to say cloud accounting by the client will simplify things but the reality is many cannot get to grips with accounts without an accountants help. Realistically I personally can't see how this can work.
What is the relevance of who drives the vehicle? This is a tax allowable deduction for a business trip in a vehicle. It matters not whether you drove the car yourself or Auntie Flo did the trip for you.
Since Revenue guidance states that you do not have to use the flat rate for all of your vehicles but must use it for 'a vehicle' once you have started to use it then surely it is per vehicle. I do not see the problem of saying you could have half a dozen cars and thereby get 60,000 miles. The allowance is meant to cover the cost of using a vehicle for business purposes. You could after all claim the actual cost for business use of any number of vehicles. So long as they are your vehicles and you are not trying it on by borrowing vehicles from someone else then the 10,000 limit covers the business element of actual costs involved per vehicle, including the capital outlay.
My answers
Just get the client to have a sign popped in the business vehicle:
'Nothing but thermal underwear left in this van overnight'
I'm 60 next year. In an ideal world I would be looking to work a few hours less a week not twice as many. In terms of the extra office hours required I currently see MTD as an impossible task for me and my staff to cope with. So do I ditch some clients and hope to up fees to others to make up the difference or just ditch them all and put my feet up? The latter is looking the most appealing as dealing with MTD will be a nightmare regardless.
Thanks for your help ladies and gents, I shall give it a go. When the tax returns are all done!
"I have been assured by Ministers that bureaucratic form-filling will be eradicated, and the information HMRC needs will be automatically uploaded to the digital accounts."
God doesn't that sound easy. Why am I worrying. Oh yes, its the bit they ignore about getting the information in to a format that can be uploaded from!
Thank you (and previous posters) that's very helpful
It smacks a little of phishing to me. As you suggest, business and personal records are intertwined as there is only one bank account and they have the statements but everything is on there from click and collect shopping bills to payments for utilities, mortgage etc as well as credit card totals each month for other stuff. We could analyse his credit card bills, if he still has them, guess what he bought at Asda and guess what he did with the cash withdrawals but the amount of detail they are requesting does not seem relevant. There are no apparent gaps which almost looks like the problem!
Thanks, that's a very helpful link
Time
Ignoring the cost issue on the basis that if you have to, say, double your fee so will your competitor and consequently clients remain on board but what about the time factor. Potentially every firm of accountants in the country has perhaps two or three times the work load - how will that work? It's easy to say cloud accounting by the client will simplify things but the reality is many cannot get to grips with accounts without an accountants help. Realistically I personally can't see how this can work.
What does it matter
What is the relevance of who drives the vehicle? This is a tax allowable deduction for a business trip in a vehicle. It matters not whether you drove the car yourself or Auntie Flo did the trip for you.
Surely per vehicle
Since Revenue guidance states that you do not have to use the flat rate for all of your vehicles but must use it for 'a vehicle' once you have started to use it then surely it is per vehicle. I do not see the problem of saying you could have half a dozen cars and thereby get 60,000 miles. The allowance is meant to cover the cost of using a vehicle for business purposes. You could after all claim the actual cost for business use of any number of vehicles. So long as they are your vehicles and you are not trying it on by borrowing vehicles from someone else then the 10,000 limit covers the business element of actual costs involved per vehicle, including the capital outlay.