The long build-up to the EU referendum on 23 June has seen delays in the normal day-to-day business of government, while HMRC plans to consult on the major transition to digital tax accounts have been delayed despite the July deadline to start beta testing of quarterly reporting, says CCH Daily editor.
So the government is paralysed by Brexit as the propaganda machine goes into overdrive and the opposing camps line up to deliver the latest exaggerated claim of pending doom and collapse if the country votes to leave, while the Brexiteers fail to substantiate their argument with concrete evidence of what severing the decades-long links with the EU would actually mean for the UK. Everything short of pestilence and plague has been predicted. No doubt the four horsemen are waiting down the road from Chequers.
The reality is that day-to-day business has entered a period of intransigence. Investment figures are down, sterling is heading in the wrong direction and government activity is creaking to a halt. Already the government has shelved plans for a series of consultations on digital tax accounts, which HMRC set for late April.
The date slipped and now it seems that the whole project may have to be re-scoped as the July timetable for the start of beta testing for quarterly reporting is unlikely to be met. If the first consultations are released immediately after the referendum, even a very short time frame would leave little time for stakeholders to digest the proposals.
Digital tax accounts will have a monumental and far‑reaching impact across all businesses except the largest corporates and listed companies.
Source: All text from CCH Daily
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