Recommendation 13

In December 2020 we reported that the age of HMRC’s Self Assessment system made it more difficult for HMRC to provide financial support for the self-employed. HMRC has an existing programme, Making Tax Digital, which will lead to self-employed people providing quarterly information on their expenses and income rather than a single annual tax return. HMRC recognised that it was taking longer than it would like to implement Making Tax Digital, but stressed that this was a key reform that would give it access to more real-time data on self-employment and would make it easier to include the self-employed in future schemes.19 In September 2021, HMRC announced that the introduction of Making Tax Digital for self-employed people would go back a year to 2024–45. We pressed HMRC on whether Making Tax Digital would be in place by 2024–25. It did not commit to 2024–25, saying it would be quite pressured for both it and software houses and small businesses to be ready in time and it would keep the delivery date under review.20 16 Committee of Public Accounts, Covid-19: Support for jobs, para 13 and page 6; C&AG’s Report, Implementing employment support schemes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Session 2019–2021, HC 862, October 2020, Figure 6; and HM Treasury, Treasury Minutes: Government responses to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Thirtieth to the Thirty-Fourth reports from Session 2019–21, CP 389, February 2021 17 C&AG’s Report, paras 11, 2.13 18 Qq 2, 72–73; HMRC, Improving the data HMRC collects from its customers, 20 July 2022, https://www.gov.uk/ government/consultations/improving-the-data-hmrc-collects-from-its-customers/improving-the-data-hmrc- collects-from-its-customers (accessed 2 December 2022) 19 Qq 35, 72; Committee of Public Accounts, Covid-19: Support for jobs, page 5 20 Qq 78–80; HMRC, Businesses get more time to prepare for digital tax changes, September 2021, https://www. gov.uk/government/news/businesses-get-more-time-to-prepare-for-digital-tax-