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Independent Money - How aware and prepared are you for Making Tax Digital?

Journalist: Marc Shoffman, Freelance

ended 08. January 2026

I am writing a piece for The Independent on how prepared small business owners are for the shift to Making Tax Digital in April.

Keen for comments from business owners on if there has been enough awareness raising from HMRC?

What are accountants advising clients to do to prepare?

What impact will it have on people running their business?

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Riz Malik
Independent Financial Adviser at R3 Wealth
Many small business owners are more concerned with keeping the lights on rather than making tax digital, a scheme whose biggest beneficiary is the government, which is making their lives harder.
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Colette Mason
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
My accountant wouldn't take my business on unless I used one of the tech platforms like Xero or FreeAgent. I chose FreeAgent as I struggled with Xero and found the jargon too technical for someone not trained in accountancy and bookkeeping.

That meant the decision to "go digital" was taken out of my hands before the latest tech transformation push from HMRC.

I don't mind using an electronic system. It makes more sense to me rather than having piles of invoices and receipts on spikes like a 70s sitcom.

What concerns me more is being required to link my business records to a centralised, digital ID-led system via Companies House validation. Once that kind of infrastructure exists, it’s historically very hard to control how it’s used. I have little confidence that large-scale digital ID systems will always be applied proportionately by the state. These creeping changes make it easier for citizens and businesses to be constrained by systems they can’t question, challenge, or opt out of.