Draft finance Bill legislation is set to be published in January 2017 however Andrew Tyrie has previously suggested that the Finance Bill 2017 will be introduced to parliament later than usual to coincide with the MTD timescale.

Another prediction is that MTD will be legislated in Finance Bill 2018 which will leave very little time with the start of implementation going ahead in April 2018.

On 15 August the government published a package of six consultations, which closed on 7 November 2016. In the consultations HMRC outlined that it aimed to achieve full implementation of MTD by 2020.

However, HMRC has faced backlash from businesses, landlords and other bodies over the tight timeline.

By the end of 2018 most businesses, self-employed and landlords will start updating HMRC quarterly for income tax and national insurance obligations and by 2020 most businesses will start quarterly reporting to HMRC for corporation tax obligations.

Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has previously said that timing of the move to a digital tax system was too ambitious and was wrongly focused on starting with small and micro businesses and sole traders, rather than large businesses as had been the case in previous major projects such as real time information (RTI) and auto enrolment pensions.

According to HMRC, it received via email and letter over 600 responses to the consultations ‘Bringing Business Tax into the Digital Age’ and ‘Voluntary Pay-As-You-Go’, over 120 responses to the ‘Tax Administration’ consultation, over 200 responses to the consultations on simplification measures and nearly 80 responses to the consultation on making better use of information.

Click here to see the Making Tax digital key dates and timetable