HMRC - Making Tax Digital: An Unfair Burden on Scotland's Self-Employed At a time when Scotland’s small businesses are navigating rising costs, slower growth, and ongoing economic uncertainty, imposing additional administrative burdens on the self-employed risks doing more harm than good. The rollout of Making Tax Digital (MTD) will require sole traders and landlords earning over £50,000 to submit quarterly updates to HMRC — five submissions a year instead of one annual tax return — using paid, HMRC-approved software. Over the next few years, the threshold will fall to £20,000 in turnover, bringing many more Scots into scope. In Scotland, where microbusinesses make up the overwhelming majority of enterprises — from tradespeople in Lanarkshire to rural landlords in Argyll, freelance creatives in Glasgow, and agricultural contractors in Aberdeenshire — the impact could be significant. Many operate on modest margins, often with seasonal or unpredictable income. For them,...
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Showing posts from March, 2026