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ACCA has urged HMRC to proceed with caution on the rollout of e-invoicing, warning that while the initiative could bring important efficiencies, it must not come at the expense of existing priorities such as Making Tax Digital (MTD).
Responding to a HMRC consultation, Electronic invoicing: promoting e-invoicing across UK businesses and the public sector, the accountancy body says any move toward electronic invoicing must be demand-led, voluntary, and carefully phased to avoid overburdening businesses and HMRC’s already stretched resources.
Glenn Collins, head of policy, technical and strategic engagement at ACCA, said: “With so much investment already having been made by software providers, taxpayers and all key stakeholders in Making Tax Digital (MTD), we would be concerned that the implementation of e-invoicing could potentially dilute already finite resources and lead to delays.
“We would encourage a cautious approach when considering the capacity HMRC would have to implement new developments such as e-invoicing while HMRC reforms and areas such as MTD (making tax digital) are at the early stages of phased implementation. In other words: concentrate on making MTD a success.”
In its response ACCA suggests that any e-invoicing system should adopt a decentralised “four-corner model” giving independence and flexibility and would not require users to be locked into a central platform.
Joe Fitzsimons, regional lead, policy and insights, ACCA, said: “A voluntary system of e-invoicing designed to encourage business adoption to realise key business benefits is the most productive approach. Cost benefit analysis will remain crucial as well as considering how e-invoicing can best work for business in practice.
“We also call on the government to look at existing standards in countries which already use e-invoicing and take a phased approach to ensure capacity and capability can be built and crucially lessons learned.”
