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I would love to be able to even START preparing for MTD VAT but cannot properly do so until all the software is made fully available! In common with may smaller practices most of my clients are small businesses using Excel (entirely successfully for accounts and VAT until now). I understand that there are now a few software companies on the point of issuing the requisite 'Bridging Software' but until I can appraise how it works how/when can I start to educate clients on the practical aspects of its use?
Exactly - cannot prepare meaningfully and economically with so many unknowns. And I am certainly not going to invite clients to use any pilot scheme that might backfire on them and on me.
Why the correlation between MTD and online accounts? This was the mantra trotted out by the online software companies, who then got their fingers burnt when HMRC dropped the 2017 deadline and pushed it out to 2020 at the earliest. You don't need online accounting software to be MTD compliant, although I concede that an online connection will be needed to submit VAT, but then it is already.
I'm not a luddite and love technology, but it seems to me that the cloudy people love to push their software as the Holy grail when in fact it isn't. Desktop is so much quicker, although I do agree that data collection (eg bank feeds) can be much quicker.
I'll continue to use VT+ to do a clients bookkeeping and use something like Neilson James to do the bridging bit. Ergo no extra cost to my clients save for a small increase in doing the VAT returns to cover the cost of using their software.
Agreed too. I have tried an initial soft sell on cloud accounting to several clients and I've only had one who has tentatively agreed to give it a go - the rest are not interested, don't trust online stuff, too busy, quite happy with current arrangements, etc etc
I'm going to stick with VT+ and use bridging software as well.
I am in the market right now for accounting software and I'm appalled at the sales & marketing hype & focus for cloud applications as opposed to on-premise. MTD is not a reason to go to the cloud, on-premise will work just as well. I have researched the risks and benefits and want on-premise; one key reason being that with cloud your business is totally reliant on a working (fast) connection both at your end and the "data end." You only have to consider the access issues users experienced with TSB online banking earlier this year to realise the huge risk you take for your business by putting all your eggs in the cloud basket.
Perhaps the biggest question in all this is why the hell are HMRC not telling taxpayers about what is happening!
Perhaps the biggest question in all this is why the hell are HMRC not telling taxpayers about what is happening!
Oh absolutely. Accountants/Bookkeepers have an opportunity to help small businesses implement the change and I will certainly seek to maximise that for local businesses in my area, but for medium/big businesses it may require changes to bespoke software and I can see the fan being quite mucky once they are aware.
I am a cloud hater (and paper lover) for all kinds or reasons from speed, need for passwords, delays, security risks and a whole host of reasons. So I will not be going anywhere near cloud products for digital VAT and we cannot buy the bridging software yet as it does not exist. HMRC have not even notified me of digital VAT yet and we are getting close to it.
It is time they started sending out a one page card by post to VAT payers just giving them a list of say 4 things they must do - buy this bridging software which costs X and will work with your excel spreadsheet. If you use paper records this is what you must do etc etc.
Having sat through the HMRC presentation on MTD for VAT yesterday one gets the impression that HMRC now wants to provide little, or no, free to use software for anything, having disposed of the Corporation Tax stuff a while ago (quietly). All the questions asked to the "experts" seemed to produce answers similar to "we don't know", "that's not happened yet"... etc. Wouldn't it be better to test a system that actually works, and that you can "buy and try" before announcing to the public at large that "you must comply. Even though we don't know if it works". Seems to me anything they now think of involves a structure of penalties first, then making the actual thing work properly.
So HMRC STILL cannot tell me what bridging software for my impeccable paper records (or the excel sheet I may be forced to learn to use) I will need and this is their 17 Sept pronouncement.
17 Sept
"If you don’t currently use software, or your software won’t be MTD-compatible, you’ll need to consider what software is suitable for your requirements."
We’ll publish details of the VAT software available later in the year, when we open the VAT pilot to more businesses...
Bridging software may be required to make spreadsheets MTD-compatible. You can read what we mean by ‘bridging software’ below.
The information must not be physically re-typed into another software package."
HMRC will give businesses until 31 March 2020 to make sure there are digital links between software products. Before that date, cut and paste will be an acceptable way to transfer information."
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-tax-digital-how-vat-bu...