The move, outlined in Chancellor George Osborne’s Autumn Statement in November, is part of HMRC’s switch away from print to digital reporting and is designed to raise £600m in additional revenue for the Exchequer.
BADA says the plan will impose an impossible burden on its members.
“Quarterly reporting will significantly increase red tape and business costs for our members,” says Marco Forgione, chief executive of BADA.
“If you are a seasonal business, as many dealers are, you can at the moment spread your revenue and tax during busy times to cover the quarters when you’re less busy.
“It means you can cover your costs, invest and plan your financial arrangements.”
“Decimated Businesses”
BADA president Michael Cohen added that dealers with seasonal businesses “will be decimated as they will be paying most of their tax at 50% in that seasonal quarter…[that is] at a higher rate than if it were an annual tax”.
BADA is contacting industry organisations including BAMF and the Antiquarian Booksellers Association, and trade bodies that represent SMEs such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the CBI, to form a group to lobby government on the issue.
It plans to organise a meeting of representatives from these bodies in January “to coalesce, agree a campaign name, strategy and approach” to stop the requirement going ahead in 2020, Forgione said.
