At least 103,000 small business owners and self-employed people in the UK have marked their dissent to a Government plan to make them file tax returns four times every year.
The signatures on the Government’s online petition have surpassed the 100,000 required for Parliament to have to debate the matter.
The petition, initiated by business owner Paul Johnson, started only on 16 December but was shared thousands of times on social media.
Filing quarterly instead of annual returns is highly likely to prove costly to small companies and individuals in accountants’ fees, time required, and more bureaucratic tape not to mention the potential of fines.
The Forum of Private Business has calculated that micro businesses will spend an extra £600 a year in accounting fees, while companies with employees will have increases of between £500 to £3,400.
A spokesman for HMRC claimed that the impact of the change had been over-exaggerated.
“These reforms will not mean that businesses have to provide the equivalent of four tax returns every year,” HMRC said. “Updating HMRC through software or apps will deliver a light-touch process, much less burdensome and time-consuming than it is today.
“Quarterly updates will not involve all the complexity of a full tax return. The updates will be generated from existing digital business records. In most cases, little or no further entry of information will be needed. It will be much quicker to complete than the current tax return.”
The change, to take effect in 2018, was announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement
The Government is spending £1.3bn on the digital overhaul of HMRC to allow this “light-touch” reporting to take place.
The Government has 18 days to respond officially to the petition.
