For immediate release: Friday 28th April 2017
Wednesday saw the government’s controversial Making Tax Digital (MTD) proposal removed from the 2017 Finance Bill. This is good news for UK dentists according to NASDAL (the National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants and Lawyers).
Alan Suggett, media officer of NASDAL and a partner in UNW LLP, said, “The aims of the scheme appeared to be laudable in terms of simplifying and making the tax system more efficient. However, the dental sector would have faced specific challenges.”
One of the key tenets of the scheme is the submission of quarterly tax returns to HMRC. This may not present much of an issue to most businesses as they are used to paying VAT on a quarterly basis
and preparing monthly management accounts. However, dentists are not registered for VAT and even larger practices do not generally prepare monthly management accounts, or if they do, these don’t represent a true picture of turnover as such and various adjustments are required at the year end. Therefore, practice owners will often not have financially trained staff and normally use external accountants to prepare accounts. In the case of associates, almost all will rely on external accounting support.
Alan continued, “It seems that with a general election looming, it offered the government an opportunity to review MTD more closely and allow for proper scrutiny and how the scheme will work in practice. This could be seen as a pragmatic decision to ensure the government gets MTD right first time.”
ENDS
Note to editors:
NASDAL, the National Association of Specialist Dental Accountants and Lawyers, was set up in 1998. It is an association of accountants and lawyers who specialise in acting for and looking after the accounting, tax and legal affairs of dentists. It is the pre-eminent centre of excellence for accounting, tax and legal matters concerning dentists. Its members are required to pass strict admission criteria, and it regulates the performance of its members to ensure high standards of technical knowledge and service.
Images are available of the NASDAL Chairman and NASDAL team.
Nick Ledingham, the Chairman of NASDAL, is available for interview. To organise to speak to him or any other members of NASDAL for more information please contact Chris Baker on 07947 470896.
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