Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether alternative reporting frequencies were considered under Making Tax Digital for self-employed workers whose income is irregular or seasonal.

The government has worked extensively with taxpayers, representative bodies and software developers to ensure Making Tax Digital (MTD) for Income Tax works well for businesses of all types and sizes.

For most users, MTD for Income Tax will involve keeping digital records and submitting four light-touch quarterly updates during the tax year.

MTD quarterly updates are not tax returns. They are simple summaries of business income and expenses and are populated automatically through software that draws the relevant data from digital records.

Quarterly updates allow taxpayers with irregular or seasonal income to see an emerging view of their likely tax position as the year progresses, supporting better business planning. The updates can also enable HMRC to deliver targeted digital prompts to users throughout the tax year, ensuring reporting is accurate and timely by pointing out errors or missing entries.

With accurate records captured digitally in software, preparing the end-of-year return should be simpler, as the information needed is already available.