HSBC Holdings is rolling out accounting and tax tools for its small United Kingdom business customers, who will soon have to give the government a lot more information on their finances.
Europe’s biggest bank said its partnership with accounting software fintech Ember will help firms prepare quarterly reports in line with the UK’s Making Tax Digital rules, due to come into force from 2026. Currently, firms are required to produce yearly data.
“Small business owners spend huge amounts of time on laborious accounting tasks when they would much rather be seeking new opportunities, delivering on orders and expanding,” Tom Wood, head of global payments solutions at HSBC UK, said.
Business customers on HSBC’s UK online banking platform will be offered real-time profit and loss, self-assessment tax and available dividends reports, putting the bank in competition with the likes of accounting software giants Xero and Sage Group.
Ember co-founder Dan Hogan said the tax rule changes were an “insanely big” opportunity for banks, since most of the UK’s 1.75 million affected business owners lack the tools to keep digital tax records. In a separate statement, Ember said it had secured £4 million (S$6.8 million) in additional funding led by investors Valar Ventures and Shapers. BLOOMBERG
