You might also be interested in
Replies (22)
Please login or register to join the discussion.
So a >3 column Spreadsheet, for each client
{
the columns being:
o VAT Reg. Nr
o Invoice Nr
o Tax point
o Net value excluding VAT [1 Column per VAT Rate]
}
is the minimum requirement,
+ arrangements to transfer said data from Invoices
is all that is needed to 'go digital' ?
I await HMRC making it more difficult/complex in the near future.
Have HMRC announced whether they are writing directly to VAT registered businesses or have they passed the buck to agents?
What about unrepresented VAT registered businesses? Are they assuming that everyone regularly reads all the latest HMRC updates or, alternatively, that when the first return after 1 April 2019 is due for submission those businesses will suddenly hit a brick wall and then will learn all about MTD!
hmm if you adopt you get 10% growth and 27 free days. Where on earth does this come from??
Government statistics. They're always wrong. Or perhaps he meant to say 10% less growth and 27 less free days.
Now where have I heard a similar scenario just lately.
Mmm. So does every single invoice have to be listed ? I do the VAT for a garage client who has literally hundreds if not thousands of invoices from motor factors each quarter, often for just a couple of quid.
No way am I going to list all these, life's too short. And why should I or the client employ someone just to do this work ? At present I use the monthly statements as they're all standard rate VAT and also account for credit notes (often virtually indistinguishable from invoices so easy to miss otherwise).
From what I can gather HMRC need the date of supply. However I would think that in order to get returns in HMRC will have to compromise.
Strictly speaking, the date is supposed to be listed now, if I remember rightly, but VAT inspectors have never had a problem with using the statements. One in fact agreed that it seemed a more accurate way of doing things, with less room for error with credit notes being missed.
Initially a HMRC officer told me that you would use your phone camera to take a photo of the invoice and the software would do the rest automatically so it would be dead easy. In practice I don't know anyone who has got this working satisfactorily.
What you propose is a practical solution which will result in the correct amount of VAT and given there's going to be massive non-compliance with MTD I feel HMRC will be happy you've got the right totals.
Thanks, Kevin. Well, that's one way of doing it, I suppose, but methinks by the time you've photographed the invoice and transmitted it to the software, it would be far quicker to just list it on Quickbooks or whatever. Might have a word with one of the factors and see if they could somehow make the invoices available to download direct to the software.
Duh, managed to psot this twice ! Any way of deleting it?
Mmm. So does every single invoice have to be listed ? I do the VAT for a garage client who has literally hundreds if not thousands of invoices from motor factors each quarter, often for just a couple of quid.
No way am I going to list all these, life's too short. And why should I or the client employ someone just to do this work ? At present I use the monthly statements as they're all standard rate VAT and also account for credit notes (often virtually indistinguishable from invoices so easy to miss otherwise).
AW have already published an article on this at https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/comment/664592#comment-664592. Some of the questions raised have been answered on that thread eg HMRC will be writing to businesses.
“The magical ‘digital link’ is not required for 12 months until 2020 and quite frankly unenforceable anyway… Quite what they have against ‘cut ‘n’ paste’ I really don’t know. Anyone would think it exposures the emperor’s lack of clothing rather acutely in that it’s ‘as before, different interface’.”
As has been pointed out in another thread, 'cut n paste' is unlikely to be the way that people digitally transfer data from one spreadsheet to another as this destroys data in the first spreadsheet. The majority of people use 'copy n paste' which is a wholly digital transaction and leaves the original spreadsheet intact.
As HMRC have only outlawed 'cut n paste' then it seems we can assume that 'copy n paste' is perfectly acceptable as a digital link of data.
So . . . . . does anybody know how much money HMRC have spent in order to achieve ‘as before, different interface’?
The MTD budget was 1,200 million pounds. Your guess is as good as mine as to what this has/will be spent on.
What's happening with VT? I recently got an email saying they would continue to support the software and that interfaces would be available for MTD. But website is still unavailable.
I'm worried about MTD generally but the one bit that particularly stands out for me is that I understood businesses currently voluntarily registered for VAT (i.e. trading under the threshold) were exempt but if they went over the threshold in the future they would come into MTD and couldn't just opt out of it if their turnover fell below the threshold again as in they were stuck in the system until they deregistered for VAT etc. What I now read is that MTD applies to any VAT registered businesses who have ever traded over the VAT registration threshold! Surely that is crazy - they may have had a large contract 20 years ago which took them over the threshold, but not since, and they decided to retain their VAT registration status for various financial reasons. How is that going to be 'policed' by HMRC - I definitely wouldn't have access to that information especially if I took the client over from another agent.
I have the same concern: I too thought it only applied to turnover post 01/04/19 but read the guide that it applies to past turnover. How are we to know if a client has exceeded the threshold at some point in the past? Because I was concerned I've submitted this question to HMRC to cover in their webinars next week.
I'm glad you've submitted it to them kevinringer - please keep us updated on their response (if it is forthcoming!)
What's the betting that the forthcoming webinars will only repeat what we have all now read on the newly released VAT Guide with no further practical help?
Per the latest HMRC webinar that part of the VAT Act is wrong or at least misleading - it is apparently going to be re-written - the bit that says that MTD relates to any VAT registered businesses who have ever traded over the VAT registration threshold should mean from the point MTD for VAT registered businesses is brought in next April and does not relate to any time before then. It basically would then read as we have understood it all along!
When MTD was first mooted I was horrified but now I'm thinking I have used Sage for years to submit my VAT returns and it would seem this will still be acceptable.
Have I missed something here?