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21 Oct 2009
HMRC's introduction of XBRL and online filing is impossible to meet the Institute of Certified Practising Accountants has warned
The institute has warned that the government compulsory move to online tax filing by April 2011 is impossible to meet.
HMRC has mandated that all data in the next two years in relation to corporation tax filings will not only have to be online but also supplied in XBRL.
XBRL, eXtensible Business Reporting Language, is a type of computer tagging language which HMRC claims makes manual checking of tax returns redundant, the Birmingham Post reported.
ICPA chairman Tony Margaritelli said: “The Government constantly goes on about reducing red tape and expenses for business but it is now pushing a system that will make life very difficult for the vast majority of smaller accountancy firms."
The taxman's move to XBRL is being criticised by the British Application Software Developers Association for ignoring the fears of accountants and developers taking on additional work to implement new software.
“There are hundreds of accountancy practices preparing company accounts for small businesses using spreadsheets and Excel. HMRC is effectively forcing all those to go out and buy accountancy software packages – and even then we don’t know if they will be compatible come the filing deadline,” added Margaritelli.
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Visitor comments Add your comment
eXecRaBLe
Another example of big government riding roughshod over small business. Come the revolution.
Posted by: Roger Newnes-Smith FCA, 21 Oct 2009 | 00:00
iXBRL - impossible? - no!
Whilst I appreciate the comments in the article that the technology is impossible to implement, I disagree. I think that to impose xml based language on accountants is a daunting prospect. We've been using xml based grammars for years, xbrl is just a new grammar. If anyone wants to know how we are engaging with accounting package partners to overcome this, then drop me a line richard.metcalfe@arkksolutions.com
Posted by: Richard Metcalfe, 21 Oct 2009 | 00:00
iXBRL, not XBRL
HMRC are mandating iXBRL for statutory accounts and computations. The "i" stands for inline, it's new and there may not even be products to buy yet that can do this. And even when they are available it's still an extra piece of work producing the stats in a new format, just for HMRC (CH are have said they'll work towards accepting iXBRL but that's not a ringing endorsement). Perhaps it'll make the software vendors happy...
Posted by: e-madness, 21 Oct 2009 | 00:00
XBRL is already a reality in Belgium
since April 2007, all Belgian registered companies filing to the Central bank (about 235,000) are using XBRL without knowing it, just because XBRL is embedded in the accounting software package. The opertaion is then fully transparent and nobody complains. Why should UK fail where Belgium succeeded.
Posted by: Olivier, 23 Oct 2009 | 00:00
Impossible - No
I was at the Iris World event in Manchester earlier this week and they claim to be well on target to introduce the capability of filing accounts and CT comps in iXBRL from Iris - and plan to beat the deadline by about 6 months, so perhaps the other accounts/tax software providers will also be following suit.
Posted by: Phil Wood, 23 Oct 2009 | 00:00