26 | Bed & Breakfast News | Summer 2019
What ‘Making
Tax Digital’
Means for B&B
Owners
by Andrew Garvey, Chief
Commercial Officer, Countingup
delaying the introduction of MTD, with
HMRC receiving criticism for not doing
enough to promote the campaign.
While there has been much discussion
about the difficulties and pressure of
implementing MTD, we hear much less
about how small businesses can take
advantage of it to get a leg up on the
competition. The fact is that MTD offers
B&B, guesthouse and hotel owners a
great opportunity to take the plunge,
go digital and reap the rewards that can
bring.
Better records in place
Making Tax Digital (MTD), which went
live for VAT-registered businesses in April
2019, is a new HMRC scheme that means
affected businesses now have to use
accounting software to maintain their
records. Its launch is having a big impact
on owners of bed and breakfasts (B&Bs),
guesthouses and small family hotels
across the UK.
There has already been a lot of talk
about how much pressure small
businesses and entrepreneurs are under
when changing from a more manual
accounting system to a fully digital one.
There has even been speculation about
Many owners don’t have accounting
software in place. Instead, they typically
rely on manual processes and keeping
receipts safe, in a drawer, folder or
even shoebox, before sending them on
to their bookkeeper or accountant to
prepare their tax returns.
One thing that may cause them problems
is using a personal current account to
run their business. It’s estimated that as
many as 75% of Britain’s self-employed
workforce use personal accounts for
business finances. As records will now
need to be kept digitally, mixing business
and personal banking transactions will
inevitably be a massive headache. At
Countingup, we’re already seeing people
opening business accounts with us for
this reason.
By adopting the latest accounting
technologies, small hotel owners can