We asked HMRC what Making Tax Digital was for. HMRC told us Making Tax Digital was about making tax easier, keeping tax in line with the digital age and making business more productive.56 HMRC also told us that, by providing real time or up-to- date data on taxpayers, Making Tax Digital would help it if it ever needed to introduce a support scheme like the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme again, although such a benefit was not one of the original reasons for introducing Making Tax Digital.57