Doesn’t time fly?
HMRC have been quick to declare that the Personal Tax Account (PTA) had its first birthday on the 14 December 2016. They said:
The Personal Tax Account marks its first birthday today, 14 December, and in that time, it has already revolutionised the way customers interact with HMRC. In its first year, the Personal Tax Account already has more than seven million users and there have been millions of transactions including:
- 1.6 million Income Tax repayments, worth more than £800 million
- 1 million tax credit renewals
- 100,000 people check or update their company car details
- 1.6 million people checking their tax estimate
- 2 million people checking their state pensions.
The Personal Tax Account is designed to be one stop shop for all customer interactions with HMRC and customers using it can:
- check their state pension
- complete and return a Self-Assessment tax return
- update tax credits circumstances as they change throughout the year to prevent under and overpayments
- claim an Income Tax refund that will be paid straight into their bank account so they don’t have to wait 14 days for a cheque in the post
- check and update their Marriage Allowance.
The Personal Tax Account is one aspect of HMRC’s digital transformation, which aims to create the most digitally advanced tax authority in the world. Accessing yours takes just five minutes and can be done here.
With this level of activity, it would seem that HMRC are pressing ahead with Making Tax Digital, and we will need to monitor progress; 2018 – when unincorporated businesses are drawn into the quarterly upload regime – is really not that far away, especially if we have to drag clients, kicking and screaming, into the digital age.
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