1. Accountants Go Digital!
The Reluctant Revolution

2. Accountants Go Digital!
The Reluctant Revolution

3. Agenda Introductions What is MTD? Challenge 1 : Brand Recognition
UK Cloud Accounting
Challenge 2 : The Profit & Loss
Virtual Finance Director
The Future?
Questions

4. Introductions Chris Fielding Director – Client Solutions
Wizard Commercial Analytics
Husband, father, son, brother, Mancunian, Oldham glory hunter, future single figure golfer, proper Oasis fan, countryside dwelling, Business Intelligence Wizard

5. Now it’s your turn
Everybody on their feet.

6. What is MTD? Making Tax Digital £1.3bn investment by the UK Government
Replacement of the annual tax return
Quarterly submission of trading information
Live from April 2018
All submissions must be sent electronically
Digital tax accounts for all individual taxpayers
Introduction of voluntary payments (PAYG)
Simplify the calculation of tax

7. What do HMRC say? Tax simplified MTD for businesses Tax in one place
Taxpayers should not have to give HMRC information that it already has or could get from elsewhere.
Taxpayers will see the information that HMRC holds through their digital tax accounts and be able to check it is correct
MTD for businesses
Businesses should not have to wait until the end of the year before knowing how much tax they should pay.
HMRC will collect information as close to real time as possible, to stop tax due or repayments owed from building up.
Tax in one place
By 2020, taxpayers will be able to see their complete financial picture in their digital account.
Taxpayers will be able to offset an over payment of one tax against an under payment of another.
MTD for individual taxpayers
Individual taxpayers will interact with HMRC digitally, and at any time to suit them.
Every individual and small business will have access to a digital tax account giving a personalised picture of their tax affairs.
Source: HMRC Making tax digital Dec 2015

8. Key benefits of MTD Real time – up to date view of tax liability
Visibility – ability to see current tax position
Cashflow – increased planning ability
Efficiency – reduced duplication of information
Flexibility – able to make in year adjustments
Time – quicker to complete
Autonomy – manage tax affairs in account
Accuracy – reduced errors & missed deadlines
Relevance – tax management for a digital world

9. Potential MTD challenges
Awareness – people unaware of change
Skills gap – lack of new technology knowledge
Hardware – investment required in computers
Cost – additional accountancy support
Cashflow – impact of payments brought forward
Effort – submission required quarterly
Culture – movement to digital world from paper

10. What some accountants say
“Making Tax Digital will be the most disruptive HMRC initiative ever to hit the accountancy profession.” CheapAccounting.co.uk
“What HMRC seems to think is that accounting is just an exercise in totting up the books, it’s assembling the data to populate the return that takes all the time.” Richard Murphy, Accountant
“HMRC has a couple of years to live up to its promise. If it doesn’t, we may well have a revolution on our hands but not the one intended.” Qdos Consulting
“I’d sooner have a paperless toilet than a paperless office” Anonymous Accountant

11. Challenge 1: Brand Recognition

12. UK Cloud Accounting Xero Quickbooks Clear Books Sage Kashflow
FreeAgent

13. Founded Location Sales Pitch
Wellington NZ
Simplicity, power, elegance Fast with 99.97% uptime
Xero
2006
Accounting done in a few taps
Easy accounting software
Quickbooks
(Intuit)
2002
California
Easy to use software
Accessible from anywhere
Kashflow
(IRIS)
2005
London
Clear & Easy to use
Perfect for small business
Clearbooks
2008
London
Software made for Freelancer, SME’s and their accountants
FreeAgent
2007
Edinburgh
A complete cloud accounting solution
Sage
1981
Newcastle

14. Gary Turner MD Xero UK New Zealand based business – UK for 8 years
2011 – 5 people working from home
The most popular UK accounting software
200,000 customers in the UK with 700,000 total
All businesses must use accounting software
Technology is the biggest industry for change
5 of top 10 world businesses are tech based
All businesses to become technology companies
Talking to technology will become normal
Accountancy tops jobs at risk chart – again!

15. Challenge 2: The Profit & Loss

16. The Future?

17. Any Questions?

18. Contact Information
Wizard_CA
Christopher Fielding
All photography used was provided courtesy of ISO Republic