Self employed workers and small businesses win victory as the Government U-turn over the compulsory quarterly reporting of taxes

BRITAIN’S army of self-employed workers and small businesses have won a key victory over the Government after ministers ditched plans to force them to report taxes online four times a year.

Only firms with revenues of over £85,000 a year will have to keep digital records – saving hundreds of pounds a year for small businesses. The policy was in the Labour party manifesto.

It marks a major U-turn from former Chancellor George Osborne’s costly plans to digitise the tax system for everyone.

The move would have also required landlords to file digital records every three months. Only those with revenues under £10,000 would have been exempt under the Making Tax Digital programme.

The Government had already announced a one-year delay to the implementation of Mr Osborne’s plans earlier this year.

Now only firms with a turnover above the VAT threshold of £85,000 will have to keep digital tax records from 2019.

And they will only have to do so for VAT purposes after ministers ditched plans to force businesses to go digital for other taxes – such as income tax and National Insurance.

Small businesses and landlords had campaigned for the changes. Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Business, said the changes would give a “real lifeline” for small firms already facing a “hugely challenging economic climate”.

Richard Lambert, chief executive of the National Landlords Association, said it came as a big relief for thousands of landlords who were facing being “dragged into a system of tax reporting rushed into being before they or it are ready”.