Adviser - Winter 2018

Ryan Pearcy , a business advisory director at Scrutton Bland who specialises in online accounting, explains what this means for businesses in the region.

B rexit negotiations may have hindered the progress of plans to introduce online tax reporting, but it looks certain that the requirement to report VAT returns will come into effect in April 2019 – which is less than six months away. If your business is VAT registered then you must ensure you are prepared for this development, or face the possibility of a fine.

For anyone who doesn’t know, what is Making Tax Digital (MTD)? Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) announced in 2015 that they intend to “bring businesses into the digital age” by requiring businesses to submit Tax Returns electronically rather than having the choice of using either a paper-based option, or the HMRC portal on their website. All businesses and individuals will be issued with a personalized digital tax account and will have to maintain digital records and submit them to HMRC using MTD compatible software.

So when is this going to happen and what has changed? The key focus for the first stage of MTD will be on businesses with a turnover above the VAT threshold, which is currently £85,000. These businesses must keep and report VAT records digitally from April 2019, although a small proportion of businesses can defer this until October 2019. The other change will be in the way that businesses will report their data to HMRC. Up until now many clients have used the HMRC website portal to key in their data, however this will not be available after April next year for businesses with a vatable turnover over £85,000, and they will be obliged to use software which has the functionality to seamlessly transfer the figures to HMRC. One of the biggest concerns we have seen from our clients is the requirement to digitally report Corporation and Business Tax returns to HMRC. This has been delayed, to at least April 2020.

Making Tax Digital Presentations. We are running a series of roadshows at our offices in:

Ipswich

Colchester

Cambridge

Diss

30th October

20th November

31st October

12th November

27th November

12th December

29th January

24th January

7th February

To book your free place at one of our events email events@scruttonbland.co.uk or call 0330 058 6559

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