Recommendation 33

As well as having significant parts left to design and test and have the software development industry buy into and build products, HMRC also needs to plan how it will communicate these changes to its customers. HMRC told us that it had a very strong communication plan and it was working with the software industry to do some joint marketing because they can reach more customers working together. HMRC did not confirm how it would communicate with customers who do not use accounting software currently but said that it had milestones and a plan in place to ramp up awareness. In answer to questions about its communication plans, HMRC told us it had learned from the programme’s introduction for VAT that businesses would say “come back and tell me when I need to do something”. It said that while it did want to build up awareness in advance with agents, it wanted to give taxpayers notice for when they need to actively do something.84 79 Q 50, 57–59 80 Q 73; C&AG’s Report, Figure 5 81 PTD0002, Written evidence submitted by Rossmartin Tax Consultancy Limited, 19 June 2023 82 PTD0005, Written evidence submitted by Coachbuilt Cars Ltd, 19 June 2023, C&AG’s Report, para 2.7 and 2.8 83 Qq 74–75 84 Qq 90–92 Progress with Making Tax Digital 23