For UK users: Will gnucash get ready for Making Tax, Digital ?

[Mike.Minh at gmx.net]

   [If you don't mind me saying this: I haven't seen mailman lists for
   quite some years and I was a little surprised to see they still exist.
   I could not find any way how to add another comment to a given thread,
   despite having started the thread myself.  This contribution may well
   appear as a new thread]


   I'm glad to see that I sucessfully triggered a discussion about MTD.

   Whilst it may take  longer than anticipated to see MTD in full swing,
   one thing is clear, it will come.
   It's a Government project, UK GOV is not exactly famous for meeting
   deadlines (or budgets).

   HMRC's plans were already delayed twice very substantially, the Finance
   Bill this year was amended so heavily in the last minute, hardly any of
   the MTD aims were left. All this down to the dreadful Brexit
   referendum, followed closely by a General Election.

   May I add to some of the points mentioned:

   The VAT treshold (£85K turnover pa) is not a realiable indicator for
   who might be affected or not. You can for instance voluntarily register
   for VAT (my company did, and the reason has little to do with money,
   but with getting access to clients who would not deal with a
   non-registered biz)

   This is also not just about submitting VAT returns electronically.
   There will eventially be a need to keep electronic records on
   transaction basis, for the smaller businesses maybe not initially, but
   it will become a requirement eventually.

   Exceptions named by HMRC were notably religious communities whose
   beliefs don't allow to use electronic communication. No joke. They have
   thought of everything, right?

   Any yes, nobody has any specs yet. No reason to put the head into the
   sand. Sage, Quickbooks or XERO, nobody knows. At any rate, the earlier
   the gnucash dev community starts preparing for MTD, the better.

   The need for a secret code to identify approved software was mentioned.
   Secret or not, why is it against OpenSource ideals when HMRC wants to
   assure that only software with the right capabilities can be used?

   Some more links:

   [1]http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20161207201022/https://www
   .gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital

   [2]https://www.gov.uk/government/news/next-steps-on-the-finance-bill-an
   d-making-tax-digital (only published on 13 July 2017)

References

   1. http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20161207201022/https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital
   2. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/next-steps-on-the-finance-bill-and-making-tax-digital