With Making Tax Digital for Income Tax (MTD for IT) on the horizon for many, there is a lot of discussion about whether the reforms will have a net positive or negative impact on tax filing.
While this is a worthwhile discussion, there is a bigger problem lurking beneath the surface.
Whether MTD is good or bad, it is coming, but there are a host of people unwilling or unable to make the jump.
This has led to many accountants growing frustrated at the lack of uptake, as they know that penalties will be coming for those who refuse to upgrade.
If you are one of those accountants who cannot get your client to make the switch, we may have the answer for you.
Why are clients not getting MTD ready?
As frustrating as it may be that your clients are not getting MTD for IT readiness, you should know that your presence is having a positive impact on overall MTD for IT preparedness.
Recent research discovered that having professional help dramatically increased the level of confidence in MTD for IT.
Published in the Journal of Accounting and Taxation, the report concluded that “the traders who use the services of an accountant are confident with Making Tax Digital. On the other hand, traders without accountants showed lower levels of confidence.”
They went on to highlight that “the lower confidence may be due to the transitional period and the period of uncertainty as firms may be quick to adapt to change.”
That is to say that, once MTD for IT becomes a reality, it is more likely that clients will take the pressure seriously and make the changes.
If software solutions are so simple, why do clients not use them?
You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink.
What you can do is try to model the efficiency of software solutions so that clients can understand the ways in which they will benefit from them.
It is worth remembering that some of your clients will have been filing their taxes the same way for years, if not decades.
For those who are about to be pulled into MTD for IT, they might have little interest in changing what has worked.
There may be sole traders who are looking to retire soon and cannot understand why they would need to overhaul their processes just to see out the last few years.
It is therefore imperative that accountants provide workable solutions that minimise the level of effort that their clients need to expend to stay MTD for IT-compliant.
Providing a simple solution is the key to opening the door to MTD preparedness.
The simple yet effective design of Glasscubes is emblematic of the kind of software that will thrive in the early days of MTD for IT.
We do not overcomplicate our programme, yet it completes all the tasks required in an efficient way.
Your clients are not using software that they see as overcomplicated, expensive, and hard to master.
We don’t blame them, but we want you to be able to keep doing the job you want to do.
To find out how Glasscubes can keep clients compliant with MTD without them needing expert knowledge, book a demo today!
