MTD preparations: ‘Break it into manageable chunks’
Find out how Sam Mitcham from SJCM Accountancy is segmenting her client base and planning a programme to bring them into MTD ITSA in different phases.
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Serous question, given we just don't know
(A) who will really be affected
(B) when it will really start as a compulsory wrecking ball of red tape (if at all)
How exactly are you approaching this when not just advertising software?
It must be an odd conversation with a client. I cant see how you can realistically do that and remain credible advisor if you blatantly lie and tell your clients this is 100% actually going to happen this time.
If you explain the reality that we just don't know when it will be compulsory and for whom, and how - if at all- any of those will be enforced, then the client will quite rightly tell you to come back when you know for sure its happening, they have a business to run and your job is to make the admin easy, not harder.
I am assuming you are a competent firm in the first place, have clients on the best record keeping method for them, and don't have clients rocking up with carrier bags of receipts of any of the other nonsense which I have seen a conflating MTD requirements with "sorting out your core business"
Completely agree.
Breaking something "into manageable chunks" pre-supposes that you have a cogent plan (of objectives/methods/resources/etc) that can be segmented in order to check on progress at regular intervals.
Whereas with MTD, even HMRC appear unable to describe the entirety of the 'plan' in anything approaching detail ... so it can't sensibly be segmented.
Try the following analogy.
If the objective is to get from London to Edinburgh, without using a car and with a total budget of £50 ... you could make a stab at a plan (although it would be a shame when you arrived after the event that no-one told you was why you had to get there).
However if the objective is merely set as getting at least 330 miles away from London within a week ... you'll be a tad peeved when your instructors later tell you about not driving or the proposed destination or the budget cap!
Why would you unleash the current uncertainty on all your clients - knowing that unnecessary costs will be incurred by one or both parties due to late clarification of details by HMRC or even late notice of revisions?
It must be an odd conversation with a client. I cant see how you can realistically do that and remain credible advisor if you blatantly lie and tell your clients this is 100% actually going to happen this time.
I agree. It's 60:40 at best (or worst, depending on your point of view).
I'd be tempted to spend some time claiming exemption for the least digitally able of my clients, which would leave more time to see to the rest. And I haven't even considered the cost to the client in saying that, though I'm guessing it'd be a lot more than £6 a year or whatever HMRC currently claim.