Following the original implementation of Making Tax Digital in April 2019, initially for VAT-registered businesses over the VAT threshold, it has been fairly quiet especially after the postponement by a year of further implementations was announced in the summer.
The next wave of businesses required to register and comply with MTD are the remainder of VAT-registered businesses not already involved in the scheme, and that will happen from April 2022. From that point all VAT-registered businesses will be required to keep digital records and submit VAT Returns via MTD enabled software.
However, HMRC has recently announced that non-MTD VAT submissions using software providers will no longer be supported from April 2021. Effectively this means for those VAT-registered businesses not already complying with MTD, the VAT quarters ending December, January and February 2021 will be the last that can be submitted via their software in the current manner.
The options available for those business from April 2021 will be:-
- Sign up for MTD voluntarily (you should be aware that this will have to happen from April 2022 anyway
- Your software supplier should introduce a new non-MTD VAT Return through which you can generate the relevant figures. This will then be used to submit the information manually using HMRC online services or MTD bridging software.
You will need to check with your software supplier to see when this new option will be available if you prefer not to join MTD at this time.
For clients who we already assist with the submission of VAT Returns, we will attend to this in due course, but for those who submit their own, they will need to be fully aware of these changes. Please contact us if you need any assistance.
November 19th, 2020
