Lobbying on SA urgent
UK's largest accounting bodies persuade government away from shifting SA filing deadlines several months forward
The UK’s largest accounting bodies are taking an urgent approach in
persuading the government that shifting self assessment deadlines is not in the
public’s interest.
Following a meeting between the major accounting bodies on Monday, the
profession is set to act together to persuade the government away from shifting
SA filing deadlines several months forward. But discussions will be delicate and
private, according to attendees of the meeting.
‘We want to keep [discussions] behind the scenes’, said ICAS assistant
director of tax Donald Drysdale.
But he confirmed that the bodies agreed that Lord Carter’s recommendation to
HM Revenue & Customs to shift the deadlines was ‘out of Carter’s remit’, and
would increase error rates on returns.
The institutes expressed fears that the proposal on filing dates would
overshadow other reforms. The statement of intent was signed by the ICAEW, ICAS,
ACCA, ICAI, CIoT, ATT and AAT. Lord Carter has proposed moving forward
self-assessment filing deadlines from 31 January to 30 September for paper
returns and 30 November for online filing.