Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 29
29
HMRC's restrictions hinder software industry's ability to develop products for Making Tax Digital.
Conclusion
We heard from HMRC and written submissions from the programme’s stakeholders, including those from the software industry, that a key requirement for the success of the programme was for HMRC to work effectively with the software industry.69 Software providers told us they had struggled to design products for more complex customer scenarios due to restrictions HMRC imposed on pilot entrants and its product testing facility.70 Evidence sent to us by APARI Software Ltd said that despite the Self Assessment pilot running for five years, it had failed to deliver the scale and testing needed for proper product development and therefore a lot of the new technology HMRC had invested in (to allow Making Tax Digital to work) had so far not been used or tested.71
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 8 March 2024. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗