WHAT IS MAKING TAX DIGITAL?

Published 6 September 2018.

It is just over 6 months until HMRC shake up the tax reporting landscape with the introduction of the Making Tax Digital (MTD) legislation.

From 1 April 2019, and initially aimed at VAT registered businesses, MTD will require that businesses registered for VAT, maintain and file their VAT returns digitally using one of HMRC's approved solutions.

What does this mean?

HMRC have identified a list of software which is MTD compliant and all VAT returns, with a return period beginning after 1 April 2019, will need to be filed using 1 of these pieces of software.

Anybody that should fall within MTD but fails to do so will leave themselves open to penalties from HMRC.

As yet, there is no recommended HMRC solution for filing returns via spreadsheet.

I'm still keeping paper books and records, what are my options?

Don't worry if you are still keeping paper books and resources, there are still options available to you, although they will involve moving to one of HMRC's solutions.

There are ways to do this that may include continuing to maintain your books and records on paper and paying an accountant to convert these on to one of HMRC's solutions before filing.

We would not recommend this though as it will be costly and time consuming to you.

Our recommendation would be that you speak to a member of our team here, identify which solution would be best for you from HMRC's list and then implement it in to your business well in time for your required date for MTD purposes.

We can even offer guidance and training in our recommended solutions.

If you'd like to explore how we could help you with the switch to MTD then please give us a call on 01254 300 050 to speak to a member of our team.