Making Tax Digital

Lord Geddes Excerpts

Wednesday 17th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

If I may, I disagree with the premise of the noble Baroness’s question. Making Tax Digital is about increasing productivity for businesses and helping HMRC close the tax gap, which I am sure the noble Baroness would agree should be a priority. There are clear benefits of Making Tax Digital, such as productivity gains to improve business operations, easier and faster tax returns by promoting digital record-keeping, and greater accuracy by reducing errors for tracking paper records. There is a substantial tax gap, and Making Tax Digital will reduce that by nearly £6 billion—some £4 billion for VAT and £1.95 billion for income tax. By doing that, and enabling HMRC to have the correct resources, it is able to direct resources where they are most needed, which addresses the point the noble Baroness was making.

[Lord Geddes (Con)]

My Lords, will it be mandatory?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

Yes.