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Move to online tax forms 'discriminates against SMEs'

Published On 3 May 2007 at 15:19:56

The government's continued policy to encourage businesses to fill in online tax forms penalises small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), the Forum of Private Businesses (FPB) has warned.

According to the FPB and the UK200Group, the drive towards online tax forms has ignored the needs and problems which SMEs face.

"Many smaller firms have been submitting paper returns for years, and do not have the resources to train new staff to file them online," explained FPB chief executive Nick Goulding.

He added that larger organisations are better equipped to train staff to deal with changes and so the move to online forms disadvantages SMEs which cannot afford new staff or training.

"HMRC should not be trying to dictate to people the method by which they declare their tax liability. Its job is to check that people pay the right amount, not to bully them into communicating that amount in HMRC’s chosen way and impose extra costs on them," Mr Goulding explained.

Similarly, David Young, the chairman of the UK200 Group's tax panel said that the move to fine companies which did not use online tax forms was "blatantly discriminatory".

 

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