The champagne is on ice at HMRC with less than two months to go until the first batch of VAT-registered business are ushered through Making Tax Digital (MTD).
Assuming there are no further bumps in the road, the first group of businesses turning over more than £85,000 in 2019/20 will begin operating under the new regime on 1 April 2019.
This requires you (or us as your accountants) to use digital software approved by the Revenue to submit your quarterly returns and your year-end report for VAT.
With more than 2.67 million VAT-registered companies in the UK, MTD may represent a big shift in how some business owners comply with VAT legislation.
Who will Making Tax Digital affect first?
If your business’s VAT return period begins on or after 1 April 2019, your business will be among the first to go through MTD for VAT. Your first VAT return will need to be submitted before 7 August 2019.
Your business will be joined by VAT-registered firms with return quarters ending on 30 June, 30 September and 31 December.
If your business has VAT return quarters ending in any of these accounting periods and you have not started preparing for MTD, get in touch with us today.
What happens with Making Tax Digital after 1 April 2019?
All VAT-registered business in the UK, and some smaller firms that feel ready for MTD, should be using the new digital regime by 1 June 2019.
Those with VAT return quarters ending 30 April, 31 July, 31 October, 31 January will be the second batch of businesses to go through MTD on 1 May 2019.
Then on 1 June 2019, the final group of VAT-registered businesses – those with VAT return quarters ending 31 May, 31 August, 30 November, 28 February – will adopt MTD.
What obligations are there for Making Tax Digital?
Nothing changes in terms of what records you need to keep for MTD. You still need to report your business’s name, its registered address, your VAT-registration number, and sales information.
Your VAT returns will still be reported online – but the biggest change is that you must adopt HMRC-approved software, or find an accountant with such software, to report VAT.
Get in touch
Taking care of VAT returns is bread and butter to our accountants, who have been using several different types of digital accounting software for some time now.
We can help move you off outdated desktop software or provide bespoke one-on-one support for Xero and QuickBooks.
If you are still reluctant to switch to digital accounts, you can authorise our experts to take care of your VAT returns if you want peace of mind.
To find out more, call us on 01454 619900 or email us at advice@dunkleys.accountants