You may have heard in the news recently the term ‘Making Tax Digital’ which comes into force on 1 April 2019.
What does ‘Making Tax Digital (MTD) mean?
Does (MTD) apply to you?
Are you ready for (MTD)?
More importantly – Is your accountant ready for MTD?
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) are working consistently towards all tax affairs being conducted online
Payroll returns all have to be submitted online through ‘RTI@ – Real Time Information and most Self Assessment tax returns are now submitted online – the only option for a paper return is if it’ssubmitted by 31 October each year. Corporation Tax returns and company accounts also have to be submitted online.
VAT returns have been submitted online for quite some time now. However, the introduction of MTD means that,if your taxable turnover is over £85,000 per annum (the VAT registration threshold), from the 1 April you will no longer be able to complete this on the HMRC Government Gateway.
It must field directly from software that is MTD compliant. The aim of this is to enable HMRC to see details of how your VAT figures are arrived it. Although, initially,it will just be the actual VAT return figures that are filed with the detailed information to be brought in at a later stage.
This is quite a frightening prospect for most clients and a lot of accountants! VAT returns will no longer be able to be prepared using spreadsheets or paper records.
The good news for clients of Ginger Accounts is that we’vebeen using software that’s‘MTD’ ready for over three years now in preparation for this legislation coming into force.
We use Sage Business Cloud Accounting – an affordable, user-friendly, ‘In the cloud’ software. The software is accessible both by the client and ourselves so we can see at any one time what’shappening with the client’s business (if they want us to). We can do the complete bookkeeping for our clients or,if clients are happy to do some of the bookkeeping themselves,we can pick up where they leaveoff.
The software can link to your business bank account to import the transactions,making them quick and easy to deal with rather than having to enter each bank transaction separately.
If purchased directly through us, it’s also available at a discounted rate.