Under the revised timetable:

  • Only businesses with a turnover above the VAT threshold (currently £85,000) will have to keep digital records and only for VAT purposes

  • They will only need to do so from 2019

  • Businesses will not be asked to keep digital records or to update HMRC quarterly, for other taxes until at least 2020
  • Small businesses will be able to file digitally on a voluntary basis for other taxes.

The Treasury thinking is that VAT already requires quarterly returns, no business will need to provide information to HMRC more regularly than they do now.

Making Tax Digital for VAT will go into a public beta test in the spring of 2018 and from April 2019, businesses above the VAT threshold will have to file their VAT returns with MTD-compatible software.