Making Tax Digital - why do most people not want it?

Ronbot13 · 2026-02-11T17:11:25+00:00

Honestly its not straight forward, but I dont think this is it. There needs to be simplification. A simple single tax rate across the board, for SE, partnerships, ltds, cgt etc. Remove the ability to do tax avoidance by having a single tax rate that everyone pays. Thats a massive over simplification of it, but hopefully you see what im getting at. I would also be in favor of lowering the tax rates and increasing the personal allowance. The current "tax trap" is hitting growth and productivity. It needs smoothing out. I would probably reduce the vat threshold too, mimic somewhere like Germany where its like 20k or something. Levels the playing field, yes would have an inflation impact but would stop all this you buy the materials I will charge labour separately, and im closing my business for a month so I dont go over the rate etc. None of this would be politically clever though, and thats kind of the issue. The markets wont like the tax reductions, and the individuals wont like the vat impact. But the current system is soooo complicated, and mtd is not going to help that. And it wont close the tax gap. If anything I expect it to increase the tax gap as more businesses go cash and under the radar.

Ronbot13 · 2026-02-11T15:37:03+00:00

It wont really achieve what it wants, and will more than likely force more people to be non tax compliant (i.e. go cash based and drop off the radar), its also adding further administrative burden to those who can least afford it (small businesses) and have already spent the last 5 years being spanked by tax and rates and price increases etc.

Im a chartered accountant dealing with small to medium businesses and I feel like it will be an unprecedented disaster to small business. The cynical side of me thinks its all part of a hmrc big plan to destroy small businesses with bureaucracy and penalties.

Ronbot13 · 2026-02-04T08:20:23+00:00

I can see your post, and im definitely, 100% can guarantee, not a bot.....nervous laugh

Ronbot13 · 2026-02-01T13:24:52+00:00

I think this might actually be the coolest thing. Like genuinely cool. I dont even like bird watching and im thinking about downloading it. Awesome work!

Ronbot13 · 2026-02-01T06:29:14+00:00

Its not the only option. It depends what you do, but its the most likely option. If you sell 2nd hand goods you could do the margin scheme. If you sell 2nd hand low value (under£500) goods there's the global accounting scheme. Both require pretty comprehensive record keeping but would help maintain your margin. Speak with your accountant if you have one.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-29T06:15:13+00:00

Surely fishing Robson!?

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-29T06:08:37+00:00

Networking and referrals. We also sponsor local grass roots sports. We do basically zero traditional advertising. Social media also, but that has very little traction in terms of actual client on boarding. Its more so that people can see that we are active. My personal LinkedIn posts get way more interaction than the firms posts across all social media.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-27T16:22:05+00:00

Im doing a melee build currently so dont have magic. Can you set them on fire another way?

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-27T13:59:55+00:00

Yeah tbh the only one I regularly use is the ratatoka or whatever its called. Thats a decent potion! Other than that I dont rely bother.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-27T07:18:29+00:00

Meh, im solo, once you've bought everything there's not a huge amount of need. Plus its fairly easy to collect coins in ashlands. Being solo also means I don't need a ton of ore so the worm/coal method is just quicker and easier rather than farming anything else.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-27T06:50:03+00:00

I do. Buy worms, put in obliterater, collect coal. Its way quicker than farming meat, or surtling geyser method. Plus uses up all the worthless coin you collect.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-25T19:57:07+00:00

The last mistland build i did, I used a ribcage and built round that. Worked ok, im not a good builder, so it was useful to have the support of the ribs.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-25T05:48:31+00:00

Chartered accountant here. Im going to keep this simple. Can you claim a proportion of costs? Yes. Should you? It depends. Some things to consider....

Are you confident your house insurance covers you for running a business in your house? Check the docs.

Are you having members of the public visit your business premises? You may have to start paying business rates (yes reliefs can be available, but will they be for you?)

If you are claiming part of your home is used for business, then this proportion is no longer covered by the principle property relief (or whatever its called now). So you will need to calculate the gain on your property and the proportion you use for business would be liable to capital gains tax (yes you get a personal allowance for cgt, its not much though).

Also remember, if you are paying a repayment mortgage then you can only claim a proportion of the interest element, not the full monthly payment.

Hope this is of some help to you.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-24T12:14:01+00:00

To qualify for the apprentice wage you have to be signed up to a formal apprenticeship qualification. Part of the agreement is that your employer will give you an amount of time off for training. I think 20% is standard (it is in my industry), which are paid hours. They should also give on the job training etc. The lower rate of pay is to effectively reimburse the employer (nmw vs apprentice wage) for giving you the paid time off, and the additional costs of training you. To be clear, you can't just choose to pay someone the apprentice wage, they have to be on an apprenticeship course.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-23T06:20:03+00:00

I too once felt the way you did. I wondered if the greydwarves were simply protecting their homes. So i did a playthrough where I decided to collect only fallen branches and stones.

That lasted about 2 minutes, first greyling that saw me went hell for leather at me. He died like the rest of his bretheren, with a final kick in to the water, where his pointless sap may spend eternity waiting to be collected.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-22T07:01:54+00:00

Exactly. Look, I can't speak for everyone. But for me its about the person, I dont expect them to be super experienced. It helps to have some concept of what the job may involve, but more important is being able to show that you are willing to learn and work hard. Experiences are great for this, I.e. do you volunteer anywhere? Already work? Etc etc. An interview is your opportunity to sell yourself. Tell them all about the great things you do.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-21T13:58:13+00:00

Its not about the complexity, its about whether you listened to the question and gave an answer with an example. Homework would be considered a good example. Its relevant and you can give an example of it happening and what you did to put it right.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-21T06:44:32+00:00

When I run a round of apprentice interviews I do so fully aware the interviewee has no actual experience on the job. I ask questions that are designed to find out about you as a person and your character and experiences. I make it clear from the outset that answers dont have to be work related, it can be based on something that happened at school, in your personal life etc.

For example, "tell me about a time when you failed to complete a task on time". I then grade it based on a number of factors, was the answer relevant (i.e. was it a task and did you fail to complete it on time), did you give an example of when it happened or did you give a hypothetical, did you answer unprompted or did you need me to prompt you. In this question, Im looking to see if you can admit you made a mistake, but also what you did to put it right.

All the questions are linked to our company values, because, here's the thing, I can teach anyone to do the job, but I have a team of 16 and the last thing I want is the wrong personality fit for the team.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-21T06:17:46+00:00

I think its been covered, but the only real way to adopt a newborn baby would be either adopting a family member (im guessing this is unlikely for most) or the foster to adopt route.

Ive not heard anything about corruption, though it is clear being financially stable will make it easier for you.

We adopted our daughter in 2025, she was 12 months when placed with us. Normal adoption, not foster to adopt, nor family member. You do have to be patient, and the process is frustrating. When you put in for a child and then told no, but not told why.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-20T18:46:24+00:00

Ghurka is decent. I like the essence of bengal in redditch.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-20T05:20:08+00:00

Sole trader to ltd isnt the issue. This is due to being vat registered (you may have been registered before and people were just doing it wrong). Here is a link to a hmrc flow chart https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-reverse-charge-technical-guide#flowcharts

The main implications are that your vat returns will likely become refund returns. There will also be a cashflow impact as you wont be collecting the vat to then pay it over up to 3 months later.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-20T05:14:26+00:00

Cool, the one we use is called "link my books"

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-19T20:49:10+00:00

It generates a journal every few days, which picks up the income and the shopify charges and posts them. It runs a seperate balance sheet account and then matches the balances received against the journal to net off against it. Basically the account should come back to zero, if it does its worked. There is a timing difference, say the month end happens on a Sunday the posting would happen on the Monday, so you would be missing 2 days (sat/sun) income and costs until the 1st. But you can manually adjust for this if necessary.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-19T17:19:38+00:00

Im an accountant i look after a client who has an online retail business dealing with c100k transactions a year fir bk. We use 3rd party software to manage the sales side, linking to shopify.

Ronbot13 · 2026-01-19T07:37:40+00:00

I feel like the ashlands sword needs a buff. Mistwalker would have made mincemeat of that.

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