Making Tax Digital (MTD) – The Clock is Ticking!

You should now be aware that Making Tax Digital (MTD) is HMRC’s move to digitise tax. This means that as of 1st April 2019, the majority of UK businesses above the VAT threshold of £85,000 will be required to submit VAT returns using accounting software, where you’ll no longer be able to submit manually through the HMRC gateway.

Please refer online to HMRC VAT Notice 700/22: Making Tax Digital for VAT HERE, which is a great source of information on the topic.

HMRC are currently in the process of contacting all UK businesses to advise them of the formal mandation date applicable to that business and many of our clients will have now received this notification. For example, if you are part of a group VAT structure then your deadline has been deferred to 1^st October 2019. However, for the majority of our clients, the original deadline of the 1^st April 2019 will still apply.

For the last six months, we at Smith Cooper have been very active with regard to ensuring our clients are aware, ready and compliant for these changes. However, due to the imminent deadline and the anticipated amount of activity in the coming months, we are now contacting all of our clients again to confirm plans for compliance.

If you have already ordered an upgrade to your Sage system or the MTD module in response to previous communications from us, then no further action is required. If you have yet to confirm your plans for MTD compliance then your options are as follows.

The latest versions of Sage 200– Spring 2018 and Summer 2018 are MTD compliant and connected to the HMRC software for digital VAT submissions. All subsequent releases (including the forthcoming “Winter 2018” release) will also be MTD ready. If you are unsure which version you are on, please contact Smith Cooper and we will confirm.

All customers are entitled to the latest version of Sage 200 under their annual maintenance agreement and both Smith Cooper and Sage strongly recommends upgrading your Sage 200 system in advance of the Making Tax Digital deadline. If you use Sage 200 Online, then your update will be applied automatically in the coming weeks and, again, no further action is required.

However, we understand that not all customers will be in a position to upgrade before April 2019, which is why Sage has created the MTD Submission module. The module provides customers on pre-2018 versions, who are not able to upgrade before the MTD deadline, the ability to comply with the legislation in the short term.

The price to upgrade to the latest version of Sage 200 can vary due to the complexity of your system (e.g. installed modules, 3^rd party add-ons, development etc). However, as an alternative, Smith Cooper has negotiated special pricing for the Sage 200 MTD module on a one-off perpetual licence basis (Sage’s standard offering is based on a subscription model until such time as you choose to upgrade).

Our team will shortly be contacting all clients again who have yet to confirm their compliance plans. However, if you would like to request a quote for either or both options or simply require further information, please contact us on either 01332 959008 or [email protected]