Making Tax Digital Plans for VAT
Earlier this year, the government announced that businesses operating above the VAT registration threshold, (currently £85,000), would be the first to enter the new Making Tax Digital (MTD) regime.
Now there are indications as to what such businesses will have to do to comply, and why. The detailed rules should be in place by April 2018, with a view to a start date of 1 April 2019. Much work will be going on at HMRC and the software houses to get the scheme off to a smooth start.
Digital Records From 1 April 2019, businesses over the VAT threshold will be obliged to keep digital records and use MTD functional compatible software to give the information for their VAT returns to HRMC. They will have to preserve records in digital form for up to six years.
Software must be able to connect to HMRC via an Application Programming interface, creating VAT returns and supplying HMRC with information digitally. HMRC are looking to harvest data on a voluntary basis as well, so they can monitor compliance, and also to provide information from their end. Business software would therefore need to be capable of accommodating this two-way information flow.
Supplying HMRC with quarterly information is one of the cornerstones of the MTD regime. But though VAT registered businesses already supply quarterly VAT information, it isn’t always an entirely digital operation. Many businesses use spreadsheets to submit returns, and HMRC may underestimate the change needed.
HMRC state that the VAT
account will link the underlying records and VAT return, but should a business use more than one software system, or spreadsheets, there could be complications. Add-on submission software will be needed for businesses using spreadsheets.
There are some exemptions from the requirement to keep digital records. These broadly follow those currently in place with regard to electronic VAT returns, covering members of religious societies, insolvent businesses, and those who ‘for reasons of disability, age, remoteness of location, or any other reason’ are not required to make an electronic return. A right of appeal is allowed if HMRC refuse exemption.
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Businesses will have to keep and preserve what is called ‘designatory data’ digitally. This includes business name, principal place of business and VAT registration number, and information about any VAT scheme used: the VAT account, and information about supplies made and received.
Schemes and Returns HMRC say, “The information contained with the VAT return will be generated by pulling information from the digital records.
This information will
contain as a minimum the nine boxes required for the VAT return, but can also contain a specific data set of supplementary information – all of which will be pulled from the digital records.” The procedure to correct errors will mostly be as at present.
Any business currently submitting monthly returns will continue to do so, as will any business submitting non standard returns. Users of the annual accounting scheme will be able to continue to do so.
But the requirements for digital record
keeping and submission will apply in these cases. Retail scheme users will be allowed to record electronically sales transaction data based on daily gross takings – rather than having to record details of each sale. For those using the Flat Rate Scheme, digital
record keeping requirements current record keeping requirements.
There will also be the facility for businesses to submit VAT information more often than the VAT return cycle requires, for example to keep HMRC informed of a change in circumstances. In the long run, HMRC are still looking to a scenario where income tax updates are made quarterly and digitally, and this is really what the VAT provisions anticipate.
Monitoring Your VAT Position With VAT about to be linked to a new digital record keeping regime, it will be more important than ever to monitor business turnover to see if there is a need to register for VAT as a business operating over the VAT threshold will enter a more complex regime. The requisite software is not yet available, but as we move towards MTD, many businesses may need guidance to make sure their systems are compliant, and we will be happy to advise on record keeping or in any other way we can.
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