Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 15 January 2019 to Question 207321, for what reasons that answer did not provide an estimate of what proportion of eligible businesses the 4000 companies now in scope for making tax digital represents.

Further to my response on 15 January 2019 to PQ 207321, daily take-up during this pilot stage has now increased to over 200 businesses a day, and total take-up has increased to over 6,000.

As set out in my previous response, a key objective of this pilot stage is to ensure that full testing is undertaken with the full range of mandated business types, so that improvements to the service and customer support model can be made where necessary. The technical aspects of the service have been rigorously tested to date with a cross-section of business types, including specific trades, representative of the wider business population. While we expect take-up to increase further in the run-up to the mandation date, it would be misleading for the reasons set out in my previous response for that to be the sole focus. At this stage, in line with expectations and plans, take-up is a small but growing proportion of the overall mandated population of 1.1 million.

HMRC is continuing to issue letters to all businesses in scope inviting them to join early, alongside a range of other communications activity, which is increasing participation in the pilot. HMRC’s assessment is that progress with take-up across the range of business types and other delivery activity is on track to be ready to mandate the service for VAT periods which start on or after 1 April 2019.

The Government has continued to engage with stakeholders and listen to their concerns about business readiness. In October I announced a 6 month delay for those customers with the most complex requirements, to ensure there is sufficient time for testing the service with them in the pilot before they are mandated to join from 1 October 2019.